HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. spoke on Saturday at the Kansas State Fair about the importance of caring for your neighbors with mental health issues, especially those working in agriculture. "September is Mental Health Awareness Month," Marshall said. "Specifically, we're trying to educate folks about the challenges in agriculture. Farmers and ranchers have an almost four times higher suicide rate than the general population. The pressures are for real. Many of us, I'm a fifth-generation farm kid, many are six and seven generations out here. The pressure to keep that farm alive and well for future generations is enormous." According to Rural Minds, pre-pandemic in 2018, nearly two thirds of rural counties in America did not have a psychiatrist.

Suicide Rates in rural America on the rise. Few would have guessed Brooks Winton, a farmer from rural New York, was going through severe mental health struggles. Described as a burley ex-athlete with the ability to hoist farm animals under each arm, the 28-year-old was a beloved member of a close-knit family. That’s why his suicide came as a shock. “He was the father of 3-year-old twins, the life of the party, very hardworking,” says his uncle, Jeff Winton. “Everybody loved my nephew. No one had any idea he was struggling with mental illness until the day we found him.”

Rural Minds Founder Jeff Winton sits down with Tigger and BEC to talk about a startling statistic - farmers and others in the ag trade had the highest suicide rate of all occupations – 3 1/2 times that of the general population