Midwestern states offer suicide prevention training to clergy as farmer’s continue to struggle with depression

Midwestern states such as South Dakota and Minnesota are offering suicide prevention training for clergy. This comes as farmers in the area continue to struggle with mental health.

"You’d be surprised how many people are suffering with depression. Farmers have been a group of people who keep problems to themselves, proud and private," said Bob Worth, a third-generation crop farmer who with his son works 2,100 acres of rich, black soil near the hamlet of Lake Benton.

"The more you talk about this, the more you realize it can be fixed," added Worth, who credits his wife with saving his life in the 1980s when he got so depressed that he wouldn’t budge from bed even for the harvest. At least three neighbors and fellow farmers killed themselves, Worth said.

Increasingly aware of agricultural workers’ struggles with mental health, states such as Minnesota and South Dakota, a few miles west of Worth’s farm, are offering suicide prevention training to clergy – who are a crucial, trusted presence in rural America.