Suicide & Crisis Lifeline DON’T WAIT! Call 988
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline DON’T WAIT! Call 988
"Save A Shore Farmer" is a project of The Suicide Prevention Coalition (SPC), a consortium of non-profits, counseling services, health departments, hospitals and private behavioral health professionals and schools on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. With an agenda that teaches suicide prevention, works to enhance mental health care, and is frequently in classrooms and meeting rooms across Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset Counties, SPC strives to reduce the historically high rates of suicide in rural areas like ours.
Within Maryland, suicide rates trend higher in Wicomico and Worcester Counties on the Eastern Shore, and Washington and Allegany Counties in Western Maryland. Residents in these areas tend to be fiercely independent, don't believe that mental illness exists, and are often reluctant to seek treatment if there is a problem.
Suicide is rising among American farmers as they struggle to keep afloat. Since 2013, farm incomes have dropped nearly 50% (National Farm Union). Commodity prices are low, costs and farm debt are rising, and the non-profit, Farm Aid, predicts that if things do not change, farm closures will top that of the 1980s; when at its peak 250 farms closed every hour in America. If this is not stress-inducing, it is difficult to imagine what is.
Agriculture is a keystone in the economy in the tri-counties of the Lower Eastern Shore. A drill down through overall regional suicide rates confirms the data reveals that suicides are most common among white males aged 45 to 64, 2.6% higher than the overall state rate and accounted for 49.4% of suicides in Worcester. (Worcester County Health Department). This age group includes those in agriculture most likely to be feeling the stress that could lead to suicide. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control reported that farmers, forestry workers, and watermen are 3.4 times more likely to die by suicide than other American workers, because these fields tend to be male dominated and most often include the accessibility to firearms.