The unease deepens among farmers: a suicide occurs every two days. The Mutualité Sociale Agricole wishes to strengthen its prevention system.
City dwellers often express their nostalgia for the countryside. But the grass is not necessarily greener there. In the agricultural world too, psychosocial risks exist. Operators are even under severe pressure and suicide attempts explode. This distress, the Agricultural Social Mutuality (MSA) tries to fight it. The success is moderate: each year, 150 farmers die. The MSA therefore announced, on October 11, the implementation of new means of prevention. Because the crisis is real and deep.
Submerged cattle farming
Since 2011, health insurance for farmers has become aware of the unease in the countryside. With the deterioration of working conditions, psychological distress has increased. It must be said that between health alerts and climate crises, including the drop in cost prices, operators are subject to multiple pressures. Not to mention that their income has dropped substantially. Today, a third of them earn 350 euros per month. “This degradation results in discouragement, withdrawal into oneself, the feeling of worthlessness or guilt”, underlines the MSA.
So many factors that promote depression and suicide attempts. Some are more exposed to it: men tend to die more, especially if they are 45 to 64 years old. Two sectors are particularly affected: the breeding of cattle for their meat and for their milk. Mortality there is twice the average.
Since 2011, farmers in distress can contact a listening platform, Agri’Ecoute (09 69 39 29 19, available 24 hours a day and all week). Contacts have multiplied, proof of the deep crisis that is going through the profession. In 2015, listeners received 300 calls per quarter. In the first half of 2016, 300 calls were recorded each month. Something to worry the most serene.
Better train listeners
Aware of the extent of the problem, the MSA has doubled its system with a prevention unit. Composed of health professionals, among others, its objective is to identify operators at risk of suicide. Here again, the data bear witness to a tidal wave: 1,106 problematic situations were noted in 2015, against 966 the previous year. Many posed a real risk of suicide.
But the malaise of farmers is still poorly identified. The most recent statistics, recently communicated by Santé Publique France, date from 2011. In the meantime, the situation has clearly changed. It has deteriorated considerably. The national health agency has also launched, in conjunction with the MSA, a new study on suicide among agricultural workers. The mutual company has doubled this work by strengthening the mechanisms in place: the listening platform will consist of listeners trained in the specificities of agricultural life, and multidisciplinary units will be more numerous.
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