The isolation of rural living, a stigma in asking for help and uncontrollable variables such as the weather and unforeseen costs create unique mental health challenges for agricultural workers nationwide, leading to higher rates of suicide over the general population.
U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo wants to address these problems for rural residents, who are farmers, ranchers and farm employees. On Monday afternoon, the first-term congresswoman discussed the barriers in place with 11 northern Colorado mental health professionals deeply familiar with combating mental health in less populated areas during a roundtable at North Range Behavioral Health in Greeley.
Later, Caraveo announced bipartisan legislation she’s involved with to set up a hotline through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide mental health support for farmers, ranchers, farm workers and families. The National Agricultural Crisis Hotline Act would provide emotional support, information, suicide crisis intervention, mental health and substance use disorder support services and agricultural-related referral services.
“Right now, health and mental health is a big, big, big concern,” said Ana Schultz, a roundtable participant with the Project Protect Promotora Network, a program connected to Project Protect Food Systems — the latter which was started during COVID-19 to help agricultural dairy workers and collaborates with Sunrise Community Health.
“I would say health, in the physical and mental, is No. 1 of our counsel, help and the systems we give throughout the area,” Schultz added.
Other mental health advocates who met with Caraveo on Monday represented different organizations from Salud Family Health Centers, the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Northern Colorado, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union in Denver and North Range.
According to the National Rural Health Association in Kansas City, Missouri, suicide is in the top 10 causes of death in the U.S. Suicide rates increased about 40% from 2000-2017 among the working-age population (16-64) with 38,000 suicide deaths in 2017.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2016 reported the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industry as one of five major industry groups where suicide rates were significantly higher and impacting men more than women.
The National Rural Health Association reports male farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers have a significantly higher rate of suicide deaths at 43.2 per 100,000 compared to 27.4 per 100,000 for all other occupations.
The roundtable participants spent a little more than an hour talking with Caraveo, going over ways to penetrate the shell of the agricultural industry on mental health. Traditionally, agricultural workers are part of generations of family members who’ve worked in the industry, and they’re accustomed to hard work and even at the expense of their own self-care.
Ana Schultz, left, regional director of the Project Protect Promotora Network, and Heather Armstrong, coordinator of the Crisis Resiliency Center at North Range Behavioral Health, during a roundtable Monday, Aug. 21, 2023 with U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo on mental health access for rural farmers, ranchers and farm workers at North Range in Greeley. During the roundtable, Caraveo announced her work on the bi-partisan legislation called The National Agricultural Crisis Hotline Act. The act, which is in the early stages, would provide mental health support for farmers, ranchers, farm workers and families with the establishment of a phone number. (Anne Delaney/Staff reporter).
Caraveo is joined on the National Agricultural Crisis Hotline Act by Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York.
Caraveo said after the roundtable she does not have information on the cost or fiscal impact of the hotline. The bill is in the early stages of development, Caraveo said, mentioning the bipartisan backing and support from groups who work with agricultural workers and mental health.
Caraveo said she hopes the hotline might be integrated into and a specialty of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, the national network of local centers providing free and confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the U.S.
988 Lifeline is accessible by calling or texting 988. For more information, go to 988lifeline.org.
Caraveo developed her interest in rural mental health while representing a rural caucus at the state level, she said.
“As I pondered what to do around being a representative for a very rural area as I started Congress, this idea just cropped for us,” Caraveo said. “What is a good way to access at least basic services for mental health taking in the fact that they’re isolated, there is stigma, that they don’t have a 9-to-5 job, but would give them the ability to access somebody who understands their issues and can provide them with help in a crisis.”
When Caraveo asked at the roundtable why the suicide rate is higher for agriculture industry workers than others, one response was isolation because of the demands of the work.
“It creates an issue of you’d like to have somebody to talk to,” said Scott Clawson, an addiction and substance abuse counselor with North Range Behavioral Health. “But if it’s irrigation time, calving, planting, harvest. If you’re a farrier and it’s summertime, when I was doing that full time, I did it six days a week for six months out of the year. I didn’t work hard enough the other six (months) and had to deal with the isolation and loneliness.”
Mead-area farmer Colleen Peppler and her husband, Kent, have owned Peppler Farms for nearly 40 years. Peppler, a retired teacher and agricultural advocate through work on boards and commissions, grew up in the Yuma area and has a long history in the industry.
She said technology has not made farming easier and less stressful.
“This year has probably been one of the more stressful years I’ve seen for us and my families,” Peppler said, adding Weld County is the largest agricultural county in Colorado. “A lot of people rely on what we do.”
