After the mobilization of farmers, the State fears "waves of suicides" and calls for vigilance
State services fear news “waves of suicides” among farmers, according to a vigilance note sent by the government last week to the prefectures and which France Culture was able to consult, confirming information from Mediapart.
“It does not seem excessive to fear waves of suicides in the coming months, following dashed hopes or miserable presentations of the profession in which many farmers do not identify”, we can read in this note written by the national interministerial coordinator of the plan for the prevention of unhappiness in agriculture, Olivier Damaisin and addressed in particular to regional health agencies and prefects. This note comes after the mobilization of farmers last January throughout France and the government’s announcements to respond to their demands.
“Many situations remain without immediate solution, despite the measures planned by the government,” continues Olivier Damaisin who knows this: “The news still remains particularly tense in the agricultural sector.” He adds that: “Every day, the services of the Presidency of the Republic, those of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture receive worrying calls for help, linked in particular to the return to farms, between newfound solitude, despair and violence.”
For the coordinator, these individual situations “remain very varied in terms of their causes and the difficulties expressed but which all reveal great fragilities from the point of view of the mental health of the people concerned“. He therefore calls on state representatives to “ensure the operational nature of the prevention and support systems in place”.
Among these devices, the note mentions the “Sentinels in agriculture”. This prevention network was set up at the end of 2022 across the entire territory. It is intended to help people in great psychological distress. The note emphasizes that “if the overall objective of 5,000 sentinels is achieved at the national level, many departmental disparities remain”. The objective is therefore, according to the coordinator, to “strengthen everywhere the adequacy between the sentinels present and the risks identified in the targeted population”.
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