FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky farmers are the driving force behind the state’s $8 billion agriculture industry. For some of these farmers, the stress and isolation of life on the farm can be overwhelming. Such factors include financial stress, a lack of access to mental health services, and the inability to get away from the job.

From 2004 and 2017, there were 109 documented cases of Kentucky farmers taking their own lives. According to research by the University of Kentucky, farmers are more than twice as likely to die by suicide than the general population. Farmers who are 64 years and older are at the highest risk.

Offering assistance is Raising Hope, an effort dedicated to supporting and advocating for the mental health of Kentucky farmers. Each year for the past four fiscal years, the Kentucky General Assembly has appropriated $500,000 to fund Raising Hope, a partnership between the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and various state universities.

Raising Hope began in 2019 by Susan Jones, a professor emeritus at Western Kentucky University, and Cheryl Witt, a healthcare provider and professor at the University of Louisville.

Jones said early conversations with farmers within the region revealed a majority had dealt with suicide.

“I was in three counties, two in Kentucky and one in Tennessee, and over a third of those individuals had known someone who died from suicide,” Jones said.

Jones and Witt began attending farmers’ conventions across the state to provide health screenings and just generally listening and getting to know farmers. The group also passed out tokens of solidarity to farmers to let them know they are seen and appreciated. Since its start, the organization has grown to more than a dozen staff members.

“I personally know of two farmers who have committed suicide,” said former state agriculture commissioner Ryan Quarles. “Everybody knows somebody, and that’s how we know it’s a problem.”

Joe Moore, who raises beef, pork and lamb on his 475-acre farm in Barren County in south-central Kentucky, struggles with the age-old challenges of his profession – long hours of manual labor, unpredictable weather and unforgiving markets. Moore knows nine people who have taken their own lives.

“They don’t talk about it,” Moore said. “They have so much pride. They don’t want nobody to know their business.”

Farming in Kentucky is especially difficult as most farmers typically operate at small scales with thinner margins for error. In Kentucky, the average farm size is just 171 acres compared to the national average of 444 acres. Over 90 percent of farms in the state are family owned, and two-thirds have annual sales of less than $10,000.

“Margins have gotten tighter and tighter over time as fuel prices are higher, feed costs are higher, land is obviously much higher,” said Alex Hagan, a farm veterinarian, cattle farmer and former deputy state veterinarian at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. “So, it’s very difficult for them to operate on a profitable level at a small scale.”

Small farms are also at an outsized risk from unpredictable fluctuations in the weather, markets, global supply chains and government regulations.

Kim Link, a co-director of rural health at Western Kentucky University and a psychiatric nurse practitioner, said a prevailing mentality among many in the farming community is that you shouldn’t talk about your problems or struggles. It’s a stigma that she said can lead to bigger issues.

“Farmers have some unique stressors that the general population may not have,” Link said. “They really have no work-life balance because they pretty much live where they work.”

Link said her practice has seen a recent uptick in farmers seeking attention for mental health issues, something she said is encouraging.

“In the practice here within Warren County we are getting a lot of referrals from outside counties and sometimes two or three counties over,” Link said. “So, we are definitely seeing the need for people to get the help.”

Link credits Raising Hope for its work to bring more accessible programs for physical and mental health to farmers and their families.

Dale Dobson, the safety administrator for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, has been teaching farm safety and farm rescue for 34 years. His focus is on injury prevention and proper equipment use. But after his best friend took his own life in 2017, Dobson joined the Raising Hope team to address challenges to farmers’ mental health in addition to their physical health.

“Mental health should be taken as seriously as physical health,”Dobson said. “If you’re a farmer and you get injured on the farm, working in hazardous conditions, you go see the doctor, or you may have to go to the ER. We’ve got to have the same messaging toward those suffering from mental health issues.”

Raising Hope can be reached at 805-491-5439 or info@raisinghope.org.