An independent senator has called for commitments around the impacts of mental health on farm families and communities in election manifestos.
Senator Victor Boyhan, a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, said that the key recommendations of a report on suicide prevention for farmers need to be implemented.
The Dying to Farm: Developing a Suicide Prevention Intervention for Farmers in Ireland report, published last year, found that 23.4% of farmers that participated in a national survey were considered at risk for suicide.
This means that those farmers reported having suicidal thoughts and/or urges in the preceding two weeks.
The authors of the report, Tomás Russell, Alison Stapleton, Anne Markey and Louise McHugh, said that farmers should be included in the development of support services for farmer mental health and well-being.
Mental health
Senator Boyhan, who recently confirmed that he will run to retain his seat in the upper house of the Oireachtas, said that he personally knows of “too many farmers suffering from unnecessary heightened anxiety”.
He said that these farmers have highlighted a concern for the future; lack of access to credit; uncertainty around property rights and family tensions around secession.
“Only yesterday I met a farmer while attending Gort Mart who was very concerned and greatly troubled about the tensions around securing a smooth and amicable farm transfer of the family farm to one of his siblings.
“He [The farmer] said perhaps it was easiest to put off the day about making a decision and let them fight it out when he is gone. No doubt a familiar story to many,” Boyhan said.
The senator also acknowledged the support given by the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) for the Wellbeing Campaign by Agri Aware.
The ‘Sowing Wellbeing in Every Field Series’, a collaboration between Agri Aware and Agriland Media Group, aims to raise awareness on physical health, mental health and farm safety among the farming community.
“The three farmers who have shared their stories in this campaign have courageously lets us in on their personal journey which I have no doubt will help start the conversation for others that are struggling and give them the confidence to begin a new journey too, leading to a pathway of understanding and recovery,” Boyhan said.
“Farm organisations, understandable so, are calling for greater supports around mental health supports.
“Likewise, I too want to see policy commitments in all general elections manifestoes and to ensure that they will be embedded into the new programme for government,” he added.