Ending the Silence Around Rural Mental Health – Farm Progress
The Rural Minds organization is working to bring mental health resources to underserved rural communities
By Jennifer M. Latzke
FIRST STEP: The Rural Minds organization is working with established mental health nonprofits to bring resources to underserved rural communities. Founder Jeff Winton says 65% of counties in the United States do not have a practicing psychiatrist. Access to mental health care is a steep challenge to rural Americans in crisis.
“Every 11 minutes, someone dies by suicide in America.”
Jeff Winton, founder and chairman of the nonprofit organization Rural Minds, paused to let the number settle on the audience’s minds. He was speaking at the 2023 Cattlemen’s College last February.
“The suicide rates among people living in rural areas are 64% to 68% higher than those of large urban areas, according to the CDC,” he continued. “Farmers and ranchers are nearly two times more likely to die by suicide in the U.S. compared to other occupations. That’s right up there with miners and construction workers.”
Winton, like so many in farm country, knows the pain behind the numbers — he lost his nephew Brooks Winton to suicide over a decade ago. It was that loss that drove him and his family to found Rural Minds to serve as a voice for rural mental health. Because, as he explained, it’s so easy for people to say, “Seek help”; but when you live in rural America, that first step can be insurmountable.