Nurse working to address ‘big problem’ of suicide in farming

Lucia Slack, who lives on a farm in rural Cumbria where her husband Johnny is a dairy farmer, will travel all over the world to find out how other countries are tackling the issue.

“I have both personal and professional experience of how stressful the agricultural industry can be”

Lucia Slack

Among the countries she hopes to visit are India, China, Australia, Japan, the US, New Zealand and Sweden.

She plans to take learning from successful programmes in these countries and use this to benefit the mental health of farmers in the UK.

Her study – Addressing Suicide in Agriculture: Supporting and Preventing the Biggest Hidden Danger Today – will focus in particular on initiatives based on peer support, community engagement and reducing stigma around mental health.

The NHS mental health nurse has received a Nuffield Farming Scholarship to carry out the study.

Ms Slack said: “I have both personal and professional experience of how stressful the agricultural industry can be.

“I wanted my Nuffield Scholarship to focus on suicide in agriculture because it’s such a big problem.”

Noting that three people a week died by suicide in agriculture, she added: “With my background, I really hope to be able to positively influence the industry by exploring effective ways to prevent suicide and promote mental health in agriculture.”

Nuffield Farming Scholarships enable people to travel abroad to explore a topic relevant to the agriculture industry and make recommendations to improve its future.

Allister Nixon, chief executive of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, which funded Ms Slack’s scholarship, said: “Supporting the health and wellbeing of the farming community is a key priority of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, and so I am delighted that the society is sponsoring Lucia to study such an important topic that I hope the wider industry will benefit from.”