I think sometimes people are hesitant to know when to have like some kind of intervention or intervene or just say something.

It depends on maybe how well you know a person.

The drought, hey prices.

Cost of pasture fertilizers 3 times more expensive.

It's costing more for farmers to do business.

The suicide rate for farmers and ranchers is about 50% higher than the general population, which is huge.

Most people don't realize it's that big of an issue.

My name is Wendy Blackwood.

I am a licensed professional counselor, and so I see quite a few ranchers farmers in rural Central Arkansas.

In general, there's a larger population of men that don't seek help as quickly and are more likely to lean into the idea of suicide just because depression and anxiety kind of overwhelms them.

They're also.

In our private way, they don't want to worry their family so they don't share.

The important thing about reaching them is first of all getting the people that have contact with them to be aware of what to look for.

Their feed suppliers, their veterinarians, anyone that's going to have contact with them on a regular, semi regular basis.

I practice in Moralton, Arkansas.

Moralton veterinary clinic or a mixed practice.

We do cattle, horses, dogs and cats.

We do a lot of sheep and goats, exotics, wildlife too when we need to.

We serve about 7 counties in Central Arkansas, so we have a pretty good influx of farmers, ranchers coming in.

You know, we're dealing with the health of the animal, but it spills over into the economic issues and just everything that relates to that farm sometimes I say.

I think we need to sit down.

I think we need to go over your numbers because everybody's numbers are different and they're you know and I sometimes we just, I really have to dig deep in their financials anyways.

We get the conversations for them to be able to just have those open crucial conversations of how you're doing because of if no one asked, they're not going to just volunteer.

So getting people to just be aware, oftentimes it's family members that start getting concerned.

There's a lot of isolation in farming.

You work alone a lot of the time and so it's easy to isolate.

And not be seen as you struggle.

You know, farmers, they have a never ending cycle of work.

Most farmers, it's a legacy.

It's their livelihood, their heritage and their identity.

It's a very interesting culture and if you're an outsider, they're not going to talk to you.

The average age of the ranchers and farmers is 57.5.

They're almost 60 years old.

There's a lot of younger generations that aren't interested in taking up this very hard type of work.

They feel it's on them.

So they're working later and later and later in the life just seemingly feeling helpless and hopeless.

There's nowhere to turn.

It's all on my shoulders.

People are hesitant to.

Knowing to have like a some kind of intervention or intervene or just say something, it depends on maybe how well you know a person.

I think sometimes to just make the observation of you know, you just don't seem to to have as much energy as you used to.

You seem a little different.

I'm a little concerned.

There's several reasons that that they won't reach out for help on their own.

There's a lot of stigma.

It's that idea that it's it's not OK to reach out.

You know, I should, there's a lot of shoulds.

I should be able to do it myself.

I should be able to manage it myself.

I'm going to look weak.

There's a lot of pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of attitude and being tough and being resilient, which they all are.

There is availability now for a lot of telehealth, but they may not be technology savvy.

They may not even realize that that's an option.

I know sometimes I'm not the best person to talk to somebody like that, but I have had my employees talk to them.

Sometimes I got an employee there.

They'll confide in a little bit better.

So I'll, I'll try to get the employees to talk to them.

You know, sometimes they'll open up to maybe a woman will open up to a woman where she wouldn't talk to me.

There is a lot of stress involved with being a spouse.

Family of of a farmer or rancher because.

You you're there as support and also there's an unspoken privacy and you don't go telling family business and so you'll get a lot of spouses that are overwhelmed and scared for for their family members.

That's another part of the of the situation that the just the entire farm family because it is a typically a family business and the entire family is affected by the health of any one of them.

I think if it became part of the everyday conversation, we would see a huge difference.

What is really useful is to make it common to go to the gathering places where the farmers, the ranchers are, you know, a convention where they're selling equipment, whether that is the coffee shop where they hang out or the barbershop, places where they can have these conversations and not be seen as taboo.

With the people I work with, it's all because they've talked to someone that's talked to someone.

And so word of mouth is really the way to get that word out there because you know, they like to read the paper, they like to read the the Agri reports, put it in there, give them the options of their regions.

It's helpful for them to maintain themselves as much as they maintain their equipment.

If we can make that correlation for them that they can maintain themselves and be more able to take care of their farm, take care of their family, which is really important to them, they may be more likely to reach out.

To do it as if it seems like it is, you know, just part of the farm.

If there's anyone that's struggling, one 800 farm aid is a really great resource.

Suicide hotline is 988 and every county has some local mental health facilities.

They will have people that they can contact and if they're not the right fit, they can get you to someone that is more than anything.

Talk to the people that you know and that you love.

This program is funded through a farm and ranch Stress Assistance Network Grant provided by the United States Department of Agriculture and administered by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.