Texas AgrAbility - AgriStress Helpline

Don’t Let Your Stress Get The Best of You.

Although we can’t always control or choose our circumstances, we can control and choose how we respond to them. Sometimes that response looks like asking for help. The AgriStress Helpline is 833-897-2474 and is available 24/7 via text or phone to the agricultural community, including family and friends.

Texas agricultural producers and farmworkers are hard workers and represent an unyielding force that suffers backbreaking work to provide for others. Unfortunately, the agriculture industry is considered one of the top occupations with the highest percentage of deaths by suicide. Key factors contributing to these rates include financial losses, chronic illness or pain, a sense of work-life imbalance, and physical or social barriers to accessing mental health services. Agricultural occupations are vulnerable to circumstances that are out of their control, such as unpredictable weather patterns, falling market prices, and labor shortages.

Even if a farmer or rancher attempts to seek mental health care, they generally reside in rural areas. In Texas, 75% of the 406 federal Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (MHPSA) designations are in rural areas. Therefore, Texas farmers and ranchers who may be in the greatest need of any occupational group are going without vital mental health services.

To help address the unique stressors faced by agricultural producers, the Texas Department of Agriculture is working alongside the Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention and Education (SW Ag Center) and the AgriSafe Network to create the Texas Farmer’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Program.