SUICIDE PREVENTION
For too long, suicide has had a devastating impact on farming and agricultural communities.
WE SEE IT, WE WANT TO HELP
The scale of the problem cannot continue to be ignored. Figures highlighted by the UK Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee indicate that around one farmer a week in the UK dies by suicide.
Behind every statistic is a person, a family, a community and a life that mattered.
At The Cresco Foundation, we believe suicide prevention starts much earlier than the point of crisis.
32.9%
OF FARMERS REPORTED EXPERIENCING SUICIDAL THOUGHTS WITHIN THE PREVIOUS 12 MONTHS.
21.3%
OF UK VETERINARY SURGEONS REPORTED SUICIDAL IDEATION WITHIN THE PREVIOUS 12 MONTHS.
57%
OF MEN IN RURAL COMMUNITIES SAID THEY WOULD NOT REACH OUT FOR SUPPORT IF THEY WERE STRUGGLING.
MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT IS SUICIDE PREVENTION
A big part of our work is using accessible mental health support to underpin our ability to prevent suicide within agricultural communities.
We don't see mental health support and suicide prevention as two separate things. They are connected.
By making it easier for people to talk, access support and address difficulties earlier, we can help prevent problems from reaching a point where someone feels that suicide is their only option.
Early intervention can create space between someone experiencing suicidal thoughts and acting on them. It can help reduce the noise of suicidal ideation, giving someone the opportunity to step back, talk, be heard and find a way forward.
We see it. We want to help.
UNDERSTANDING
THE PRESSURES
Agricultural life can bring pressures that are difficult to understand from the outside.
Long and unpredictable hours, financial pressures, isolation, responsibility for livestock, disease outbreaks, changing weather, physical injury, family pressures and uncertainty about the future can all take their toll.
Often, these pressures don't exist in isolation. They build, overlap and become increasingly difficult to manage.
Someone doesn't necessarily wake up one day in crisis. Sometimes the warning signs are much quieter — withdrawing from others, struggling to cope, losing hope, turning to substances, or simply feeling like everything has become too much.
This is where early intervention matters.
PEOPLE IN AGRICULTURE SUPPORTING PEOPLE IN AGRICULTURE.
This is an important part of what we want The Cresco Foundation to be.
We don't want to simply stand outside the agricultural community and tell people where to find help.
We want to be part of the community we're supporting.
There is enormous value in people who understand agricultural life supporting others within agriculture — people who understand that sometimes you cannot simply leave the farm, that livestock still need feeding when you're struggling, that lambing doesn't stop because you're exhausted, and that asking someone to sit in a traditional clinical environment may not always be the best way to start a conversation.
Our approach is built around meeting people where they are — sometimes quite literally.
Whether that's on a farm, in a yard, at an agricultural event, over the phone or text, walking across a field or sitting beside someone in a tractor, we want support to feel accessible, familiar and relevant to the community it exists for.
SUICIDE PREVENTION STARTS BEFORE CRISIS
For us, suicide prevention does not begin when somebody reaches breaking point.
It begins much earlier. It starts with conversations. It starts with reducing the stigma around mental health and substance misuse.
It starts with making support easier to access. It starts with recognising when someone isn't themselves. And sometimes, it starts with simply asking:
“How are you really?”
And being prepared to stay for the answer. Our ambition is to create more opportunities for those conversations to happen and build clear pathways to appropriate support before somebody reaches crisis. Because prevention isn't about waiting for an emergency. It's about giving people reasons, opportunities and support to keep going.
YOUR SUPPORT SHOWS HOPE
Every donation provides the roots for someone's recovery. Join the Cresco community in nurturing mental health within our rural landscapes. Your involvement ensures that no one in our agricultural community has to weather the storm alone.