Farmers are People: A Revolutionary Insight into Farmer Health with Lanie Doerr

What if we've been looking at farmer suicide risk from the wrong perspective?

In this episode of The Impact Farming Show, host Tracy sits down with Lanie Doerr, a licensed professional counselor, to discuss her book Farmers are People: A Revolutionary Insight into Farmer Suicide Risk.

Lanie challenges the widely held belief that farmers have fundamentally different psychological risk factors than the general population. She argues that while the business pressures of farming - extreme weather, high land prices, low grain prices and other financial challenges - can create tremendous stress, it is the resulting personal problems and psychological factors that need to be better understood when we talk about depression and suicide.

Drawing on both her experience as a farmer and her professional background as a mental health therapist, Lanie offers a different way of thinking about farmer mental health—and, importantly, a message of hope for farmers, ranchers and their families.

In This Episode

• Why Lanie believes farmers are people first when it comes to understanding mental health and suicide risk

• What she believes the agriculture industry has gotten wrong about farmer suicide

• The difference between business problems and personal problems

• How financial, weather and farm business pressures can ultimately affect a person's mental health

• Why farmers may be reluctant to talk about personal struggles

• The psychological factors that can contribute to depression and suicide risk

• Why the traditional conversation around farmer mental health may need to change