Suicide Prevention Pt 1

Suicide Prevention Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I’m Bob Larson. Farmers and ranchers are a typically a resilient bunch, but stress and potential suicides remain a serious problem in agriculture.

Don McMoran, director of the WSU Extension office in Skagit County, is calling on everyone, who is a farmer or who knows one, to be on the lookout for signs of stress…

McMORAN … “Yeah, the CDC came out with some data a few years ago that indicated that agriculture had two to three times the national average in suicides. So, it’s a major problem.”

McMoran says stress has always been around, but recent years have been trying …

McMORAN … “There’s definitely been an increase over the years. We have seen a little bit of a dip during the pandemic which is, you know, counter-intuitive to what a person would think. But typically, a farmer will hold off during emergency times to move forward with a suicide until things start actually looking better and then the more time to reflect and that’s when they make their decision.”

Surprisingly, McMoran says 2020 wasn’t as bad as it could have been …

McMORAN … “Actually, you know, we’re really preparing for, potentially, 2022 to be the really bad year. So, luckily for us we got the funding ahead of time and were able to get the outreach.”

Tune in tomorrow for more on stress and suicide prevention in agriculture and a program to fund research on the matter.

Tune in tomorrow for more on suicide prevention in agriculture and the Western Regional Agricultural Stress Assistance Program (WRASAP) and the grants to help fund stress research.

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