Farmer Mental Health

Mental health of farmers and their families, is related to complex social, geographical location, financial and agricultural governance issues, as well as access to personal contact and necessities. Although statistical evidence can be collected, understanding direct causes of suicide in farmers is difficult to define. A personal case may involve family, police or health care workers. Research in this area is multidisciplined and may include legal or social subjects. Case study research is the heart of how health care workers can gaining insight into the personal side of farmers mental heath and how suicides can be reduced.

A research article by Fitzpatrick et al. (2021) on rural suicide cases lists mood disorders as most reported diagnosis of mental illness, followed by psychotic and anxiety disorders and almost a quarter of suicide cases had undiagnosed symptoms. It found treatment for mental illness in men decreased with remoteness. Geographic location is a barrier to farmers seeking treatment, being unable to leave their work due to travel distance and farming responsibilities. Along with needed awareness as suggested by undiagnosed suicide cases, there might be possible stigma associated with mental health relating to male role expectation of farmers (Di lorio, 2022) and keeping a farm in the family. The general idea of depression as the main cause of suicide (Donham & Thelin, 2016) may not always apply for rural communities. Prevention could be assisted by access to services and understanding.

Searching Tips

Useful search terms include; Anxiety, Depression, Education, Family Relations, Family Violence, Men, Mental Illness, PSHYCHOLOGY/Mental Health, Rural Health Australia, Rural Health Services, Suicide, Violence. 

For completing searches, using 'full text' searching will find search terms within the whole text. Titles of documents relating to suicide or other areas of rural mental health might be ambiguous due to being multidisciplinariy. Searching under 'subject' using your chosen key words will also give a broader range of research in this field.

The Library provides discipline-based resources under 'Mental Health' giving access to online materials.

Databases suggested useful for their search options: Cochrane Library and Informit Health Collection (full-text), PubMed (includes life science journals), Trip (finding case studies).

Databases recommended to cover agricultural health available through the Library:

• Embase on OVID
• Europe PMC (includes worldwide life sciences)
• Informit Health Collection
• Medline via OVID
• PsycInfo via OVID
• PubMed

Books

Australia's rural, remote and Indigenous health: a social determinant perspective, J.D. Smith.
The handbook of rural medicine in Australia, D. Wilkinson.
Rural mental health: Issues, policies, and best practices, K.B. Smalley. 
Rural women's health, B. Leipert.
Rural nursing: concepts, theory, and practice, C.A. Winders.

Journals

Australian Journal of Rural Health
BMC Public Health
Journal of Emergency Medicine (Australian)
Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care
Rural and Remote Health

Rural health policy, statistics and organisations

AgHealth Australia - Previously known as Australian Centre for Agricultural Health & Safety (ACAHS), AgHealth is based at Dubbo and is a leading academic unit of the University of Sydney within the School of Rural Health investigating non-intentional fatal and non-fatal incidents occurring on farms across Australia.

Australian Bureau of Statistics- Australian Government data agency. Includes statistics on health and agricultural topics.

Australian Institute of Family Studies - Links to reports and statistics on Australian families, including information on families in remote Australia. Good source of health statistics.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - Rural Health - Characteristics of rural Australia and health risk factors. This is part of the broader Australian institute of Health and Welfare website.

Department of Health - Rural Health Resources - Provides an overview of Rural Health in Australia, including Government objectives and links to related organisations.

Farmsafe Australia Inc. - Health and safety resources for Australian farmers.

Healthdirect – Rural and Remote Health - Resources for health in rural Australia.

National Rural Health Alliance - Promotes health across rural, regional and remote Australia.

National Centre for Farmer Health - NCFH provides leadership in research, education, information and service delivery to improve health, wellbeing and safety for farmers and farm workers. Based in Hamilton, Victoria.

The little book of rural health numbers/National Rural Health Alliance - This is the first version of this resource detailing health related statistics in rural, regional and remote Australia.

World Health Organisation (WHO) - Provides data and statistics on worldwide morbidity and mortality, including country-by-country information

Other Resources

Australian Standards - for information such as gun possession.
Cochrane Library special collection No. 33 - Indigenous peoples, suicide prevention.
Google Scholar - multidisciplinary.
Grey literature - current information.
Victorian Mental Health Library, a resource accesssible to health care workers.

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This library guide was developed by H.Pethers on Library Placement at SWH 2023.