This project, Addressing Stressors, Preventing Farmer Suicide: Social Connectedness and Health, led by the Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program worked to reduce farmer suicide risk by strengthening social connectedness, building community leadership and improving access to culturally responsive mental health support for rural communities. The project trained hundreds of rural community members, agribusiness professionals and health care providers to recognize suicide risk, support individuals experiencing stress and connect them with appropriate resources. Over the course of the grant, the program expanded its statewide partnerships, increased public awareness through storytelling, education and outreach and broadened its focus to support Spanish-speaking farmworkers through bilingual community health workers who integrate mental health into broader health and social services.
The Challenge
Southwestern Wisconsin communities have strong cultural assets, trusted relationships and a growing interest in working together to support farmer well-being. Building on partnerships established through a previous WPP Catalyst Grant, the Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program identified strong community demand for initiatives that strengthen social connectedness and support farm families. However, farmers continue to face significant economic volatility, catastrophic weather events, limited access to rural health care and a growing divide between urban and rural culture that contributes to gaps in providers’ understanding of farming communities. While farming often values self-reliance and independence, the erosion of social connectedness in rural communities over the past half century has increased isolation and reduced support networks, contributing to one of the highest occupational suicide risks in the country. According to the CDC, farmers die by suicide at rates up to 2.5 times higher than the general population, underscoring the need to strengthen community connections, improve rural leadership capacity and increase the cultural competence of health care providers serving farm families.
Project Goals
The project focused on strengthening community capacity to reduce farm stress and suicide risk by building social connectedness, increasing leadership and support networks and improving the ability of rural communities and health care providers to respond to the unique needs of farmers and farm families. Key goals included:
Supporting and developing opportunities for community capacity building for empowerment and networking support.
Developing activities to shift narratives and outcomes through education and outreach.
Providing health equity capacity building for rural medicine providers.
Results
Throughout the grant period, this project expanded its reach and strengthened community capacity to support the mental health and wellbeing of farmers, farm workers and rural communities. During the first two years of the project, 731 rural community members and agribusiness professionals were trained to recognize signs of suicide, serve as empathetic listeners and connect individuals with appropriate support. More than 150 participants took part in The Water We Swim In community conversation series and storytelling workshops, helping reduce stigma by exploring how cultural messages influence physical, mental and behavioral health. They also expanded its public outreach, increasing its social media reach tenfold between the first and second years of the project, generating 3,200 website visits, 120,000 Facebook post views and publishing 14 newsletter articles focused on farmer mental health, self-care, farm stories and agricultural news.
The project also built capacity within rural health systems and expanded its statewide partnerships. More than 75 health care providers, residents and medical students received training on mental health, farm stress and injury prevention through partnerships with the National Farm Medicine Center and the Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine. Staff also joined statewide coalitions and steering committees focused on farmer mental health and rural suicide prevention, including collaborations with the UW–Division of Extension, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Farm Center and Mental Health America.
In 2025, the project broadened its focus to support Spanish-speaking farmworkers through bilingual community health workers who provided culturally relevant integrated health and mental health services. The project connected 212 Spanish-speaking community members with community health workers, who facilitated access to 537 local resources and services. Farm Well also delivered 12 Know Your Rights clinics serving 285 participants, 4 Immigration Legal Clinics serving 50 participants, 2 Bienvenido programs for 45 newly arrived high school students and 2 safeTALK trainings for 18 community members, while an additional 9 Richland Hospital and Clinic staff completed safeTALK training to strengthen suicide prevention capacity within the local health system.
Evaluation findings demonstrated meaningful improvements in participants’ knowledge, confidence and community connectedness. Participants rated safeTALK training an average of 9.5 out of 10, 61% reported feeling “well prepared” to talk with someone experiencing suicidal thoughts after the training, and 100% planned to encourage others to participate. Follow-up surveys found that 89% of past safeTALK participants had talked directly and openly with someone about potential suicidal thoughts, 100% reported greater confidence in supporting the mental health of others, and participants across Farm Well programs reported a stronger understanding of the importance of mental health, greater confidence in supporting others and a stronger sense of connection within their communities. Community health workers also helped participants navigate health and mental health systems by scheduling appointments, connecting individuals with specialty care and financial assistance and following up to reduce barriers to accessing services.
Lasting Impact
One of the project’s significant lasting impacts was strengthening regional partnerships and expanding community capacity by developing new collaborations with Voces de la Frontera, Growing Lancaster, a local bilingual physician and Green County Mental Health Matters, while continuing its partnership with Richland Hospital and Clinic to increase mental health knowledge among health care providers. Community health workers also partnered with local organizations to provide workshops, participate in coalition activities and connect community members with services addressing health care, housing, food security, education and other social determinants of health.
