I interact with teenagers as their FFA advisor and mentor in various activities. I recently was required by the school district to take mandatory online training about suicide prevention in teenagers. It hit home because working with Holly Spangler, editor of Prairie Farmer in Illinois, a sister publication, we’ve uncovered an uptick in calls from farmers to those who work in suicide prevention.

Apparently, there is more traffic about suicide among farm circles on social media. Much of it is fueled by tough economic times. There are lots of resources available for suicide prevention, but very few are specific to agriculture.

Bill Field knows that people with serious issues sometimes just need someone to talk to. The Purdue University Extension safety specialist has spent more than four decades working with farmers, often talking to farm families who’ve suffered accidents or lost loved ones. He knows the pain they need to let out.

Broad picture
Field has a different view on the uptick in suicide awareness in agriculture. He doesn’t downplay its importance. Instead, he contends that agriculture is already fighting a crisis, some of it related to suicide, of huge proportions. It’s the same crisis the entire country is fighting: the opioid epidemic.  

The Centers for Disease Control and others have reportedly noted the number of deaths due to drug overdoses annually may be as high as 72,000 in the U.S. While that may not be a hard number, it’s twice as high as the number of people killed in car crashes each year.

Put it in perspective with fatalities from farming — often ranked as the second most dangerous occupation in the country. While experts also argue over that number, it’s around 400 people each year. The number of children who die in farm accidents each year is 100 or less. There have been years recently in Indiana where no children died in farm accidents.

Drug specter
People are dying from drug overdoses, many from opioid pain medicines. Field suspects many overdose cases are suicides, although it’s difficult to prove.

Teenagers die from drug overdoses, and some are from suicides. Two years ago I talked to kids in an ag class and noticed one quiet student upfront. Three months later, I opened my morning newspaper to see his picture on the front page: dead from a drug overdose suicide.

There’s a reason why the local school district wants anyone working with children to be more aware of the signs that could lead to suicide. Several have died in our district alone this year. Teachers are bound by law to report to the proper authorities anything they hear or see on social media where someone implies they’re contemplating suicide.

Field would likely say we all have a moral obligation. And it’s not just for our urban friends. It could be the neighboring farmer down the road, or his son or daughter hooked on opioids — perhaps someone you would never suspect.

If anyone is depressed over low prices, take them seriously. Offer to listen. Get them professional help if they need it. But it’s not just a tight economy that agriculture is battling; a drug monster is gripping the ag world just as hard as it’s gripping the entire country.    

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