Study: Farmers Don’t Have Enough Access to Mental Health

LAKE BETON (AP) _ A University of Minnesota study says farmers in the state may not be getting all the help they need to deal with the stress and mental strain of their jobs.

Marizen Ramirez co-authored the study and is an epidemiologist at the university. She says that farmers who live far from mental health clinics may have a hard time getting the help they need.

American farmers in the early 1990s and 2000s had a suicide rate three to five times higher than other jobs, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Rural Health in 2017.

Ted Matthews has counseled farm families for decades. He says farmers are more isolated now because they tend to work alone more than in the past.