1) Preventing Farmer Suicides: My New Approach vs the Old Standard Approach

by L. Lanie Doerr, LPC, MA

09/29/25

3 minute read

I typed into Google lately, what are reasons for farmer suicide. I got a list of 2 types of reasons:  5 business reasons, 4 personal reasons, & money - which is both a business & personal problem.     

• water scarcity 

• debt / loan distress (money)

• crop marketing problems 

• mental health stigma 

• family pressure 

• climate change 

• lack of awareness (I think this means self-awareness of the risk.)

• mental health challenges 

• rise in input costs 

• rising agricultural costs.   

I farmed for a living for about 12 years, and I can attest that the business problems of farming / production agriculture are intense.  

So, then I deleted farmer from the search, hit enter, & got the 988 suicide & crisis lifeline, which I liked because that’s the most useful result.  I then checked out Medical News Today, American Foundation for suicide prevention, & the NIMH (National Institute of Mental health) to review their lists of risk factors for suicide and . . . these factors are all personal.   

Here’s my point:  Farmers are people. 

If farmers are people, then their risk factors for suicide are probably personal – like the general population.  Treating farmer’s risk factors as mostly business related is probably a barrier to treatment.   

I believe it is time for a new approach to farmer mental health.  I am a licensed professional counselor & I farmed for a living for a dozen years.   This topic is important to me, & I’ve been wrestling with it for a long time.  I’m noticing an increase in concern about farmer mental health in the past year, & I feel strongly that we need more than the usual advice that we give farmers.  To help meet that need, I’ve developed my own model.  This is the first in my series of 6 articles that outlines my approach to reducing farmer suicide risk. 

My Cultural & Identity Model vs the Old, Standard Approach

Why do we need a risk model?   

Any problem we're trying to solve, we need to understand the mechanism or processes of it.  Theories & models inform treatment.  This is as true for health as it is for repairing an air conditioner. 

The old, standard approach to farmer suicide risk

The old, standard approach is what most people mention when they talk about farmer suicide risk even though they don't label it this way. I call it the "difficulty and uncertainty of farming" approach.   The results I got from Google when I typed in farmer suicide risk describe this approach. Lots of non-clinical (meaning not published in psychology or counseling journals) magazine articles & presentations list these types of reasons for poor farmer mental health & farmer suicide. 

• Extreme weather

• Low grain prices

• Increasing input costs

• Land & equipment prices

• Stigma of seeking therapy

• Lack of hired help

• Everything on my first list from Google (above)

Suicide risks for the general population (everyone)

As I mentioned earlier, when I pursued data on suicide risks for the general population, I got:

• Mental health disorders

• Serious physical health problems like chronic pain

• Stressful events such as relationship or money problems

• History of prior attempts

• Childhood trauma

• Hopelessness

• Feeling that one is a burden to family / friends

• This is not an all-inclusive list, but it is a good list.   

So, what have we learned?

What we’ve covered so far: 

1. according the "difficulty & uncertainty approach" farmers have higher suicide risk largely because of business problems,

2. but everyone else has it because of personal problems

3. with one overlap of money problems.   

Again, the main point is that Farmers are People, & if farmers are people, their risk factors are probably personal, too. 

This means that the "difficulty & uncertainty approach" may create an additional barrier to treatment.   

If I'm a farmer (& I did farm for a living for 12 years), & my suicide risk or generally poor mental health is due to business problems – why should I seek treatment? 

There’s nothing the therapist can do about that.  As a therapist, I don’t have decent grain prices in my pocket. 

If farmer suicide risk factors are personal – therapists can help with that.   

My Cultural & Identity Risk Model

By now, dear reader, you are aware that it is my professional opinion that suicide risk factors for farmers are : 

1. Personal  & 

2. Less obvious – coming through ag-specific channels that may not be easy to spot.  

Research & Psychological Theory Support

Recent research indicates that the farm culture may be a risk factor. 

I propose 3 risk factors:

• Farmer identity

• Fishbowl living

• Family farm legacy

Identifying these as potential risk factors is useful.   We as therapists can do something about these as opposed to the list of business problems. This model gives  practical tools to work with to improve farmer mental health, & these are topics that any good therapist can use to create a solid treatment plan.