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a cce s s H ea l t h N ews . n e t M a rc h 2 0 2 6 Volume 11 | Issue No. 104 48 I t's no secret that rural residents tend to be sicker, more cash-strapped, have less access to primary and mental health care, and are more susceptible to substance use disorders (SUDs). On top of that, rural communities often face transportation barriers and limited access to jobs that pay a living wage. The outcome is higher rates of depression and suicide. A report, "Growing Stress on the Farm: The Expanding Economic and Mental Health Disparities in Rural Missouri," puts it this way: "Driven by what has come to be known as 'deaths of despair,' life expectancy for rural Americans is more than two years shorter than their urban counterparts, largely due to higher rates of drug overdoses, alcohol-related diseases, and suicide. As a leading cause of death in rural America, suicide has a particularly devastating effect on farm families." Economic factors contribute to suicide rate Missouri's rural suicide rate is growing 50% faster than nonrural suicide rates. The farm economy is a major driver. Slow recovery from the Great Recession, extreme weather, untenable commodity prices, tight lending conditions, and foreign trade policies have packed such a punch that today, there are 16,000 fewer Missouri farms than 20 years ago, according to the report. aH Farmer Suicide Rate Continues To Rise in Rural Missouri Published in March 2020 A St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank's article, "A Tale of Two Economies: Farmers Struggle Despite Strong U.S. Economy," points to 2013 as the beginning of a downward pull on farming revenues. "At a time when the overall U.S. economy continues to boom, the U.S. agriculture sector has continued to struggle amid falling farm income and deteriorating agriculture credit conditions," the article states. "Over the past five years, U.S. economic growth has continued to strengthen. The growth in U.S, real gross domestic product (GDP) has averaged 204 percent per quarter since 2013. Down on the farm, though, conditions have been far from robust. From 2013 to 2017 net farm income – considered to be a broad measure of farm profitability – fell 39 percent, from $123.8 billion to $75.5 billion."