JUSTIFICATION STATEMENT
Agricultural producers throughout the United States (US)
and Missouri are in crisis. The mental health crisis in rural
“…with just 3.7% of the
Missouri is more challenging than in urban communities,
recommended supply filled,
due to a unique set of external challenges faced by farmers
Missouri faces the largest
and ranchers. Recent studies, media coverage and
congressional action validate the need to address mental
shortage of behavioral health care
health outcomes in rural communities. Contributing to
providers in the U.S.”
mental health challenges on the farm, recent extreme
weather events, economic pressure and foreign trade
policies have combined to produce a series of lean years for agricultural producers not seen since the farm
crisis of the 1980s.
While the U.S. economy has experienced quarter-over-quarter growth since the end of the recession in
2008-2009, the farm sector has experienced six periods of recession. Missouri has nearly 16,000 fewer
family farms today compared to 20 years ago, and bankruptcies are on the rise. Bushel prices have fallen by
47% since 2012, while farm income and credit conditions have deteriorated.
Pervasive stigma and geographic barriers to accessing mental health care can prevent those in need of
behavioral health services from seeking help for stress, anxiety and depression. Each of Missouri’s 99 rural
counties is a designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA), and with just 3.7% of the
recommended supply filled, Missouri faces the largest
shortage of behavioral health care providers in the
“Between 2003 and 2017, the
U.S. The prevalence of depression among Midwestern
farmworkers is estimated to be more than 45%.
suicide rate among rural
Furthermore, the rate of heavy alcohol use among
Missourians grew by 78%...”
full-time workers in agriculture is 9.4%, higher than
the overall rate of 8.7% among all other full-time
workers. NCR producers face financial-, weather-, and
time-related stressors as well as stressors related to
complex governmental regulations. Net farm income has fallen 30.5% below its peak in 2013. Financial
circumstances are associated with depression and anxiety among NCR agricultural producers and, in a
national poll, more than 80% of farmers and farmworkers indicated that financial issues, farm or business
problems, and the fear of losing their farm had a strong negative impact on their mental health. Suicide is
growing at an alarming rate in rural Missouri. Between 2003 and 2017, the suicide rate among rural
Missourians grew by 78%, and throughout the last decade, their hospital emergency department visits for
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