It’s Farmer Suicide Prevention Day

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) — The governor’s office declared September 18 Farmer Suicide Prevention Day.

It’s not a group we often think of when we talk about suicide. According to a CDC study, farmers are killing themselves at twice the rate of veterans.

It’s an issue that often goes under-reported. yet experts say suicide rates in farmers are alarmingly high.

“It’s probably the highest risk occupation in the world agricultural farming. It can get really stressful,” says Wareen Beeler, with the governor’s office.

B was a farmer for 20 years before becoming the director for the governor’s office of Agricultural Policy.

He said he had no choice but to quit farming.

“I mean I started over at 43 years old. I was embarrassed I was ashamed. I would still be farming if I could’ve broke even but it got so bad I couldn’t even do that,” says Beeler.

He faced the crushing challenges many farmers face, losing crops to weather, being at the mercy of changing government policy, grueling hours and backbreaking work.

Living in rural communities, farmers don’t often have access to mental health care which experts say adds to the problem.

Beeler says he remembers how difficult it was finally admitting defeat.

“What looked so bad 20 years ago when I was sitting at the table at 3 o’clock in the morning turned out to be perfect and that’s what we got to convince people that if you can get through it, it’s all better at the other end,” says Beeler.

Dale Dobson, farmer and safety administrator for the Department of Ag says it was important for him to be at the event having lost a friend to suicide.

“Yeah.. I helped clean up a mess two years ago. My best friend shot himself because he was getting a divorce and had some financial issues,” Dobson says.

He says it’s been hard ever since.

“But yet at the same time it’s what’s made me want to work with this that much harder,” says Dobson.

Dobson says it’s important to raise awareness of the issue so families aren’t left without their loved ones.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call
the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Or you can even text it at 741-741.