By Quinn O’Hara, KCLY
The Clay Counts Coalition is organizing an effort to address mental health issues in agriculture with a new program called Farmer to Farmer.
"There's a huge body of research that tells us that suicide is very prevelant in the agriculture field," said Clay Count Coalition Community Mobilizer Lori Martin. "So, certainly as an agriculture community, we feel like that should be an area of focus. So we are targeting especially one-on-one with farmers, so it might be their banker, it might be their implement dealer, it could be their seed dealer. We want to get those folks trained so they can encourage those people who they see struggling to get that extra step of help.
"Sadly, as a farming culture we kind of think of it as a sign of weakness if we talk about our feelings. And yet, the best intervention is just talking about it."
At the moment, Farmer to Farmer remains in research and development, and some plans may change. Despite this, Martin estimated that the program should be ready within the next few months if all goes according to plan.
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