AGRABILITY EXPANDS
Program helps with mental health needs in rural Colorado
By Jayme DeLoss | Photography by Matthew Staver | Jan. 27, 2025
FARMERS AND ranchers make up just over 1 percent of the U.S. workforce, yet they raise products that help feed and clothe the nation and the world. If that responsibility weren’t weighty enough, their professional success hinges on factors beyond their control – weather, climate, labor availability, market prices, trade agreements, pests and disease, and costs of fuel, equipment, livestock feed, and other necessary inputs.
Many farms and ranches are passed down through families, and agricultural producers often feel enormous pressure to preserve a way of life that has become increasingly difficult.
Considering these challenges – and a scarcity of resources to help manage unique stressors – it is perhaps not surprising that suicide rates are consistently higher among agricultural producers in the rural United States than among people living in the nation’s urban areas. Colorado State University Extension is stepping in to help address the problem with a program called the Colorado AgrAbility Project, which assists farmers, ranchers, and farm workers with stress management, suicide prevention, and behavioral health needs.
AgrAbility began almost three decades ago to support agricultural producers coping with physical challenges, limitations, and disabilities. Since then, the program has helped nearly 700 Colorado farm and ranch families overcome physical challenges to maintain their livelihoods. Goodwill Industries of Colorado is a partner in this aspect of the project. Then, in 2021, with a clear need to address mental health and wellness in agricultural communities, the Colorado AgrAbility Project broadened its scope of services. State funding, directed through the Colorado Behavioral Health Recovery Act, allowed the expansion.
“Thanks to the state legislation, we are now able to treat the whole person,” said Bob Fetsch, co-director of the Colorado AgrAbility Project with Rebecca Hill, both of whom are CSU faculty members and Extension specialists.
Multiple studies have found the suicide rate among those in agricultural trades is higher than that of the general population. Colorado’s overall suicide rate ranked 10th highest in the nation in 2022, the latest year for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed data. According to the Colorado Rural Health Center, the suicide rate in rural Colorado rose from 19 to 28 per 100,000 people between 2010 and 2021. By comparison, the overall U.S. suicide rate was 14 per 100,000 people in 2022.
AgrAbility hopes to interrupt the cycle of despair that affects some farmers and ranchers. “Much of what they face is outside of their control,” said Fetsch, who grew up on a dairy farm and has advocated for farmers and ranchers for more than 40 years. “Our goal is to help them focus on what is in their control, and that’s how they handle crises, by reframing negativity and taking steps to resolve problems within their control.”
Fetsch led a 17-year national study measuring quality-of-life outcomes of AgrAbility clients. In 2023, 77 percent of AgrAbility participants reported that the program improved their overall quality of life. Clients also indicated significant improvements in physical well-being, psychological well-being, and support levels compared to nonparticipants in 12 states.
Colorado’s AgrAbility team, which now includes several behavioral health specialists, has worked with rural communities to assess needs and develop culturally responsive training and resources. Since July 2023, more than 2,500 rural community members have received behavioral health education or resources from the Extension program.
Behavioral health specialist Jim Kuemmerle, who serves Colorado’s eastern region, says agriculture is often forgotten or not well understood. “There is a disconnect between traditional mental health services and our farmers and ranchers and agricultural communities,” said Kuemmerle, who is part of the AgrAbility team. “The struggles of doing what they do are getting more and more challenging, and folks don’t understand those challenges.”
The stigma around seeking mental health assistance is also greater in rural communities, “where everybody knows you and knows your business,” Kuemmerle said.
Jim Kuemmerle, a behavioral health specialist with the Colorado AgrAbility Project, says, “There is a disconnect between traditional mental health services and our farmers and ranchers and agricultural communities.”
Colorado AgrAbility partners with the Colorado Agricultural Addiction and Mental Health Program, or CAAMHP, which offers agricultural workers six free, confidential therapy sessions provided by ag-competent therapists. Outside their work for CSU Extension, some specialists who are also trained therapists provide counseling through CAAMHP.
Kuemmerle, who is in this group, makes telehealth and house calls – and has even offered to ride along in the tractor with farmers who feel more comfortable talking there. “I said, ‘That’s fine. If there’s a second seat, you can work, and we can talk,’” Kuemmerle said. “That has helped to encourage folks to reach out for help who otherwise wouldn’t have.”
Among Kuemmerle’s community collaborators is Juliet Madsen, deputy director for emergency management and public health in Elbert County, southeast of Metro Denver. Madsen’s county has deep agricultural roots and a population of just under 29,000. During the first few months of 2024, she and other public health officials noticed an increase in the number of deaths by suicide. “Out here, there are very few resources for mental health,” Madsen noted.
So, she and Kuemmerle have worked to raise awareness about mental health resources and to reduce the stigma attached to seeking help. Madsen said she thinks the work helped to reduce suicides in the second half of 2024. “I definitely think the decrease in suicides in the county is being impacted by the push that the CSU Extension team has made,” she said. “Those numbers were on track to be the highest ever, and now they’re lower than they were last year.”
People in rural Colorado, reflected in scenes throughout this story, often have livelihoods affected by factors out of their control, such as weather, markets, and input costs. That can contribute to high levels of stress and mental health concerns.
Kuemmerle said he is encouraged by new conversations about mental health that would not have happened before. “Part of it is changing one mind at a time about that stigma, that it is OK to ask for help,” he said. “It’s not a sign of weakness.”
Chad Reznicek, CSU Extension state behavioral health specialist, said research has shown people are more likely to seek help if they have knowledge about behavioral health, the phrase used to describe mental, emotional, and social wellbeing. So, normalizing conversations, providing people with information about mental health resources, and encouraging community members to look out for one another – thereby providing a “grassroots safety net” – are important first steps in problem-solving, Reznicek said. Community coalitions and agricultural organizations are valuable partners in assessing community needs and filling gaps, he added.
For instance, Reznicek works with the New Agrarian Program, a Quivira Coalition project that provides ranching apprenticeships for rising leaders in sustainable agricultural practices. During the past 16 years, the program has paired about 150 apprentices with working ranches in four states, and a few of these apprentices have struggled with mental health problems related to the rigorous and remote nature of their work, co-founder Julie Sullivan said.
“They are going from relatively urban environments and backgrounds into a level of isolation that they have usually never experienced before, and they’re far away from their support networks,” Sullivan said of New Agrarian Program apprentices.
She connected with AgrAbility in collaboration with the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union AgWell program while seeking staff training in crisis counseling and coping strategies. Reznicek and his colleagues delivered several trainings for New Agrarian Program staff members, who then started weekly phone calls to create a support network for apprentices.
Sullivan continues to collaborate with AgrAbility and to consult with its specialists. Recently, they co-designed two webinars on behavioral health tools for New Agrarian alumni; an even broader audience attended the presentations.
“Hands down, it really helped staff feel like they had more capacity to support an apprentice who was struggling,” Sullivan said of the AgrAbility training sessions. “It helped us begin to normalize the fact that mental wellness is one of the tools in your toolbox as an agrarian, and it’s just as important as being able to pull a calf or grease a tractor.”
Editor’s note: The Colorado AgrAbility Project does not specifically address student mental health, yet it exemplifies innovative CSU programming designed to meet needs on campus and among residents in communities around the state.
SHARE