Guest Article: Jeff Winton (Founder and Chairman, Rural Minds)

Rural America is in the midst of a crisis, an unsustainable epidemic of depression and suicide. Those of us who grew up in small rural farming towns know all too well the weight of the stigma attached to mental illness, and the silent, desperate suffering that it causes.

The western New York town where I was raised had a population of 500. Stretching back several generations, many members of my family were and still are dairy farmers. The people with whom I grew up were kind, resilient, strong, faithful, and quick to lend a hand. Toughness was a matter of survival. Farmers, ranchers, and growers work hard each and every day because their work is essential, and there’s no one to cover for them if they don’t.

Against this rugged, agricultural backdrop, I began to notice an unusual pattern. Seemingly healthy people, often in the prime of their lives, were dying quite suddenly without explanation. It was more than unusual, yet no one openly discussed it. People preferred to leave the problem unspoken.

In small rural towns such as mine, mental illness was widely perceived as a weakness or a character flaw. People suffering with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and substance use disorder regularly did so without mentioning it to anyone; not friends, nor neighbors, nor family. Perhaps many of them suffering were never diagnosed with the illness. Information was scarce, and few, if any, resources were available. This all-too-common misunderstanding of mental illness has led to untold needless suffering, and, tragically, many lives senselessly lost to suicide.

For my family, this issue hits close to home. Just over a decade ago, my 28-year-old nephew, Brooks, died by suicide. Two days after celebrating the wedding of his eldest brother, this gregarious man—a father to beautiful twins, a loving partner, a farmer and steel mill worker—was suddenly gone. His death was as shocking to us as it was tragic. We had no idea that Brooks had been suffering, let alone that he was suicidal.

After his passing, we discussed what had happened, and what we were going to do. Several friends and neighbors quietly urged us to avoid mention of suicide, suggesting that we instead say he’d died of natural causes.

I remember asking my mother, who’d raised Brooks with my father, “Mom, how much detail do you want us to go into at the funeral?” The matriarch of our family, a woman of immense resolve, responded through tears, “We’re going to talk about it. It’s about time this community started facing what’s going on here.”

At his funeral, I was honored to deliver the eulogy. I spoke candidly about Brooks’s struggles, and what had happened. When the service ended, many members of the community lined up to speak with us. They thanked us for our honesty, confiding in us their struggles and those of family members, and letting us know that they finally felt like it was okay to talk about it.

That afternoon was illuminating for me. I knew then that something had to be done to combat this problem, and to help the millions of people, like Brooks, who were suffering alone and in silence.

The Nature of the Problem

Rural Americans, of which there are 46 million, comprise 14% of the population of the United States. People living in rural areas have higher rates of depression and suicide than those living in urban areas—CDC statistics indicate rural residents are 64-68% more likely to die by suicide—but are less likely to seek mental health care.

Rural areas are dramatically underserved by mental health care: rural counties have 20% fewer primary care providers than cities, 65% of rural counties lack a psychiatrist, and 47% lack a psychologist.

Given the dearth of mental health professionals in rural counties, and the demanding nature of rural professions, especially farming, residents are often unable to access mental health care. Isolation also presents a problem for mental health, as farms and houses in rural areas can often be miles apart. Approximately 30% of rural households lack broadband Internet, which prohibits telehealth visits, and lack of health insurance is common.

Focused on Solutions, Together

When we founded Rural Minds in 2021, we knew that mental health in rural communities was imperiled, but through the course of our work, we have realized not only the urgency of the problem, but also, more importantly, the necessity of providing solutions. That’s why partnerships with organizations, other mental health nonprofits, and socially-responsible corporations like FMC, are such a vital and core part of our mission.

The Rural Minds website serves as a convenient portal to a comprehensive list of mental health resources organized by topic. In addition, mental health crisis services highlight 988, the new three-digit calling code, and Crisis Text Line, among other resources.

Additionally, we’ve created the Connections Webinar Series, an annual series of free educational webinars, each focused on a different facet of mental health in rural America. Earlier this month, we hosted the latest Rural Mental Health Caregivers Challenges Webinar, in conjunction with the National Grange, which focused on the often-overlooked issues faced by those in rural America tasked with caring for friends and family with mental health conditions.

The Rural Minds Moving Forward newsletter provides a convenient encapsulation of our work, recent events, media spotlights and engagements, future endeavors, and original content from partners in the mental health sphere.

We work to identify gaps in the mental health infrastructure. In collaboration with our partners, including the National Grange , the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health America , and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, we are developing information to empower people with resources to become part of the solution in rural communities across the country.

Our local, grassroots efforts with 1500 state Grange organizations, provide the “boots on the ground” necessary to accomplish our goal of getting the abundance of valuable material, resources, and training programs into the hands of the 46 million rural Americans for whom we advocate.

We are deeply grateful to FMC Corporation for their assistance in spreading the word this May, Mental Health Awareness Month, and for their commitment to supporting mental health in rural America. We were pleased and honored to be included in the Farm Progress special edition and we look forward to working with FMC on more mental health initiatives in the future. There is much to do. But we know that working together, we can confront the mental health emergency in rural America along with the stigma that surrounds mental illness.

Jeff Winton is the Founder and Chairman of Rural Minds, a nonprofit organization that aims to end the suffering, silence and stigma surrounding mental illness in rural America. He is also the founder and owner of Wall Street Dairy, LLC — a working dairy farm in Chautauqua County, New York — and a member of a multigenerational farm family.