Among the developed country literature, United States studies have also studied links between pesticide exposure and farmer mental health. Our systematic review identified several types of farmers’ risk factors. For example, Otsuka and Kato compared a traditional society occupation group (e.g., farmers and skilled manual workers) with an industry occupation group (e.g., managers and technicians) and revealed that the industrialized occupation group had higher levels of depression. Wheeler et al. identified that some Australian irrigators experienced high levels of psychological distress nationally; higher than dryland farmers or the Australian population. Our systematic review indicates that literature used a variety of methods and scales for measuring farmer mental health. Figure 3 shows an increasing focus on farmer mental health research over the past couple of decades, with an increase from the mid-2000s onwards.
Try to be sure to take care of your physical, mental, and emotional health. The uncertainty of how this severe weather will ultimately affect the crop can feel stressful. The weather conditions have added plenty of stress and unknowns lately.
Women’s work on farms, while essential, is often invisible due to patriarchal gender relations on farms and in farm families , and women farmers report being misunderstood as farm professionals . Strong family support has been linked to lower levels of farm related-stressors among farm women , however, family support does not have a demonstrated significant relationship with psychological well-being . Findings from the current analysis make sense in this context, that, among those with low family support, women had much higher odds of depressive symptoms than men; higher anxiety symptoms were nearly significant as well.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Hotline (SAMHSA)
The US represents the country with the highest number of farmer mental health studies, followed by Australia. The most reported risk factors for farmers respectively were daily pesticides exposure 110,189, financial problems 37,129, unpredictable climate 139,143, and past injuries 52,66. Lack of access to mental health services in rural areas was another major burden to the delivery of appropriate mental health services 20,33,155. This issue can increase psychological and physical risk factors for organic farmers. However, Çakmur found that the frequency of depressive symptoms was higher among farmers who were 35 years or older.
Overcoming Barriers to Mental Health Treatment for Family Caregivers in Rural America
The PHQ-9 has been shown to be valid and reliable and has been used among agricultural populations 1,2,4. Demographic questions included age, gender, race, education, marital status, employment status within agricultural production, and military background. The list of primary producer addresses was limited to farms that listed an individual as the primary contact, as opposed to a more general farm name. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) databases and estimates 95% coverage of farm owners and operators .
Despite several studies finding climate variability and/or drought as key risk factors on farmers, studies with a specific focus on climate variability and farmer mental health outcomes are relatively thin. Financial challenges were reported in 39 articles as negatively impacting farmers’ mental health, particularly where farming was the primary income source 8,15,19,20,31,37,79,105,128,129,130,131. Hence, we sought to understand what the potential key risks affecting farmers’ mental health are, as well as if these risks vary across space and time. To explore the research question, this paper systematically reviews published studies on farmers’ https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/practitioners/recovery-resilience-resource-library/mental-health-technology mental health, and details the risk factors that have been considered and how farmer mental health has been measured. Williams reported that chronic stress among farming communities might lead to physical problems (e.g., headaches, sleep problems), mental problems (e.g., anxiety, anger, depression), and cognitive issues (e.g., memory loss, inability to make decisions). Researchers have identified a number of occupational health risks through studies of farming communities, and some have specified farming as an especially stressful occupation 1,2,3,4.
- Women, farmers who keep livestock and those running smaller enterprises are the most likely to be struggling with their mental health, results from the recent Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution’s (Rabi) Big Farming Survey have revealed.
- Because of the high stress levels in farm communities, people who work in agriculture experience higher reported rates of depression and suicide.
- The U.S. Center for Disease control has ranked agricultural professions as having among the highest suicide rates across the country.
- They provide guidance with crisis assistance, disaster training, business planning, stress management, and many other areas.
This webinar will focus on the USDA Disaster Assistance Programs available to support producers who are raising livestock. The goal of this presentation is to build the link between human health and extreme weather and climate events. Mental health outcomes are one of the more complex relationships with natural hazards.



