Agriculture is an occupation full of potential stressors like weather, changing economic markets, animal health and machinery breakdowns. When these start to compound, many farmers experience excessive amounts of stress, making it hard to remain positive and move forward through the hard times.

Due in part to the stresses that are faced, agricultural workers have high rates of suicide. The loss of a spouse, parent, sibling, child or friend can be avoided. If you or someone you know is experiencing excessive stress or thoughts of suicide, please reach out to a confidential crisis support line.

I believe wholeheartedly that it’s important for all of us to be able to recognize the signs of extreme stress – that’s why I jumped in to start this program in Oregon. I personally know individuals who were very thankful that someone cared enough about them to 1) notice that something wasn’t right, 2) ask them about it, and 3) help them get help. We’re offering some special trainings that are focused on giving you the tools you need to do the same thing: recognize signs that someone might be too stressed and struggling, talk to them about it, and assist them in getting the help they need.

These trainings are called Question, Persuade, and Refer, or QPR trainings. They’re kind of like CPR, but instead of being for emergency medical intervention, QPR is designed for emergency mental health intervention. These QPR trainings that we’re offering are farmer-centric; they are full of statistics and information about the agricultural community. I would highly encourage anyone who farms or ranches, or works with farmers and ranchers, to take this course. It’s only 90 minutes of your life, but it will provide you with the tools that could help you help someone else who’s considering suicide.

I should point out that none of us who are providing this training are mental health professionals; part of the toolkit is helping you find local resources that you can refer someone to.

Here’s a link to the QPR Trainings. We’re offering 4 more trainings, but each training is limited to 20 people, and spots are filling up fairly quickly. We’ll offer more if needed. The training dates are:

March 16, 9:00 – 10:30am
April 6, 12:00 – 1:30pm
April 29, 6:00 – 7:30pm
June 3, 4:00 – 5:30pm