Anyone who works in Pennsylvania agriculture and wants to talk to someone about mental health support can now call 833-897-AGRI (2474) for assistance. Submitted photo

Farmers and agriculture industry professionals provide food and resources to Pennsylvania and beyond through their day-to-day work. A new crisis line program seeks to make sure that their mental health isn’t left behind in the shuffle.

The new AgriStress HelpLine for Pennsylvania, administered through the nonprofit AgriSafe Network, is a free 24-hour, 7-days-a-week hotline designed for farmers and farm families seeking mental health support.

Anyone who works in Pennsylvania agriculture and wants to talk to someone about mental health support can now call 833-897-AGRI (2474) for assistance.

State Sen. Elder Vogel Jr., R-47th ,and Pennsylvania Agricultural Secretary Russell Redding discussed the new program during a virtual news conference Friday afternoon.

“These mental health services are available and accessible to anyone across the commonwealth who needs them,” Redding said. “It emphasizes that you are not alone, and that it is OK to ask for help.”

The helpline is funded through a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network.

The grant dollars also support mental health resources available through the Center for Dairy Excellence, marketing to increase mental health awareness and reduce stigma, and regional collaboration with the National Young Farmers Coalition.

Providing access to help

Natalie Roy, executive director of AgriSafe, explained that the crisis hotline is designed specifically to help farmers and members of the agriculture industry.

“The staff understand agriculture — they’re not going to tell a dairy farmer to take a two-week vacation,” she said.

The hotline can handle assisting someone who is in a crisis situation without transferring them to a different line, she said.

“We designed it specifically that if a person is a suicidal risk, they are going to be serviced with that call,” she said. “You’re getting the same credentialed professional, so that we don’t have to have the farmer hang up the phone and call another number. They can meet them where they are at. That person is going to assess what their needs are while on that line.”

Stresses on farmers

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, financial challenges, farm or business problems and the fear of losing the farm are top contributors to farmers’ mental health challenges. Cost, embarrassment and stigma often prevent farmers from seeking help or treatment for a mental health condition.

Vogel cited stress points outside of an individual’s control, including weather, market fluctuations, animal health and the ongoing pandemic, as affecting farmers on a daily basis.

“As a fourth-generation farmer and chair of the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, the significance of this issue is very clear to me,” Vogel said. “We have heard far too many stories of missed cries for help.”

Vogel and Redding previously held several roundtable discussions about mental health and agriculture in 2020.

“We must continue to seek ways to remove barriers to treatment, and provide a secure setting for such treatment to be provided to farmers,” Vogel said.

Redding said the helpline would directly challenge the stigma around seeking help for mental health.

"There can be a stigma around seeking help for mental health issues and we need to make farmers aware of all of the tools available to them," Rick Ebert, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau president, said in a statement. "This helpline will provide another resource for farmers to reach out to trained professionals and get the assistance they need."