Jaime Lozano/The Texas Tribune
Sunday, January 15, 2023 | 22:24
Slaton—Grant Heinrich was working in his family’s farm office when he received a text from one of his closest friends and laborers.
A suicide note.
Heinrich jumped into his truck and ran towards the barn. The highways of West Texas looked like a tunnel with blurry walls of crops curving around them.
“The only thing on my mind was to hurry up and get there,” Heinrich said. “I blew a hose into my truck, but I knew if I was late, I would be punished for it for the rest of my life.”
Suicide felt like a plague on Heinrich’s family. He lost his uncle 24 years ago. Then one of his cousins, whom Heinrich viewed as a superhero, died nine years ago. Two years after that, another cousin committed suicide.
“I have witnessed too much pain in my whole family,” he said.
Over the past two decades, there have been higher rates of suicide in rural communities than in urban areas. And it’s getting worse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates have increased 46% in rural America, compared to a 27.3% increase in metropolitan areas.
And rural residents go to the emergency room 1.5 times more for treatment for self-harm incidents.
For farmers, the rate is higher: 3.5 times that of the general population, according to the National Rural Health Association.
Advocates suggest that because farmers face multiple economic challenges that are out of their hands and are reluctant to share their problems, they are less likely to seek help. When they do, there may be very few options available to them because affordable care is limited in rural communities.
As a way to close the access gap, the Texas Department of Agriculture is asking the Texas Legislature to sustain the Farmer Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Program for $500,000 a year. The money would help pay for a toll-free helpline for all workers in the agricultural industry, their families and people in their communities. The program was launched last February with a federal grant and offers mental and financial resources to callers.
“Some people just want to talk and may not be in an emotional crisis,” said Trish Rivera, a rural health specialist with the department that oversees the program. “But they need someone to talk about what they’re going through so they don’t get to that stage.”
In the middle of nowhere
When Heinrich thinks of his three dead family members, he inevitably wonders if he could have made a difference. It’s a thought that haunts many people who lose loved ones to suicide: Is there a magical, golden hour to convince someone to stay alive?
That question, along with his pain, haunted Heinrich’s mind for years. He was in his mind again as he ran to the barn hoping to stop his friend.
“I was so terrified of what I was going to find,” he said.
He found his friend, gun in hand, and was able to calm him down. “I felt so grateful that he was alive.”
Heinrich is the location manager for Pro-Agri Spraying in Slaton, a town of about 6,000 people 17 miles southeast of Lubbock. He has also become an advocate for mental health wellness and has helped promote the AgriStress helpline to reach out to the state’s rural community.
Heinrich’s planting and spraying business, like the rest of the industry, felt the financial pressure of last year’s poor agricultural season.
The historic drought devastated crops across the state and left farmers watching the dry soil on their farms be blown away.
Part of the problem, Heinrich said, is the sheer isolation that living on a farm can bring.
“You are so far from other people,” Heinrich said. “It’s not like you’re walking down the street and someone stops you to say hello. These people are in the middle of nowhere, and half the time they’ve already made up their minds.”
away stigmata
The Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Program for Farmers was created in 2021 after state Sen. Roland G. Utiérrez, a San Antonio Democrat, added language to the agriculture department’s so-called “sunset bill,” legislation that authorizes the existence of the department and establishes the work it is supposed to do.
He plans to support the department’s funding request this year, he said.
“Rural areas just don’t have mental health services,” Gutierrez told The Texas Tribune. “When you look at who lives there, you have people who are farmers or work on farms, and a crop failure can bring devastation to the family.”
Originally unfunded, the department won a one-time grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
The state Department of Agriculture partnered with the AgriSafe Network, a nonprofit organization that has helped start similar programs in Connecticut, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wyoming. Rivera said the goal is to bring care and resources to those who need it and destigmatize conversations about mental health in an industry that doesn’t normally talk about it.
“Farming is a culture where you don’t really talk about your feelings, and we want to change that,” Rivera said. “We want people to feel comfortable asking for help.”
The department promotes the program where farmers can see it, such as livestock shows and county extension agencies, and in local newspapers, schools and farm organizations. This will be amplified by more funding, which the department is confident will come in the legislative session.
“We will make a continued effort to keep that message in front of our growers and we will really work to change the culture,” Rivera said.
What makes the helpline unique is who is on the other end of the call: Nearly 250 mental health professionals have been trained in the program to understand the various stresses farmers and ranchers face. This includes weather, crop prices, tariffs, and other issues.
“It is important that whoever is responding is informed and has the cultural competence to be able to talk about what they are experiencing,” Rivera said. “It’s a good resource for anyone in rural life.”
Since the helpline’s launch in February, Rivera estimates she has received at least 60 calls. In the aftermath of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde last May, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller opened the helpline for everyone in the community.
Heinrich believes the program could help farmers be less afraid to seek help.
“It’s not a weakness to go see a professional, someone other than your spouse or your best friend,” Heinrich said. “It’s important to just tell someone, ‘Hey, you’re not alone, there are a lot of people who are suffering.'”
