Farmers' suicide rates double national average: study

19 August 2008 – ABC News

A new study has found the rate of suicide among farm workers is more than double the rest of the population.

For years, people working in the agricultural sector have spoken about the problem of suicide in country areas.

Now a study by the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention has found the rate of suicide among farm workers, including farm owners and employees aged between 15 and 65, is more than double than that of the rest of the population.

"We found that the workers were significantly above the male suicide rate for Queensland in the active population," said Jacinta Hawgood, the institute's deputy director.

"The male suicide rate in the active population is 17.74 per 100,000 compared to 36.58 for the agricultural male workers."

The study used data from the Queensland Suicide Register between 1990 and 2004.

Ms Hawgood says the study proves the problem of suicide in farming communities is real, and needs to be addressed.

"One of the biggest things in the past has been the fear that probably media has sensationalised some of the statistics that have been quoted," she said.

"But this is the first time that we've actually looked really closely and reliably at a very fixed working population - which hasn't been done before - and have identified that yes, they are at quite significantly higher risk.

"I guess it lays the foundations for really needing to investigate more thoroughly what are the very specific risk factors for agriculture workers."

In recent years, farmers - particularly in the eastern states - have had to contend with tough conditions, including drought.

Denita Wawn from the National Farmers Federation (NFF) says drought is a major factor in the high rate of suicides.

"It puts huge pressure on farm families. It provides both financial and emotional impacts for a farming family, and hence does contribute towards suicide rates," she said.

But there others in the agricultural sector who think the problem is far more complex.

"Farmers and farm workers live in a very isolated position, they are both physically and socially isolated from others, so if their thinking is getting shifted and they are under this stress or they are suffering any mental health condition, it's not so readily picked up by others," said Lyn Fragar, director of the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety based at Moree in New South Wales.

"Then, clearly, they've got the location that makes it easier perhaps for them to go through and commit suicide, without being noticed and under the scrutiny of other people."

The Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention says governments need to recognise regional areas suffer from a lack of services to help those with mental illness.