A five-year grant from the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP), a grantmaking program in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, provided suicide prevention training to farmers and people close to them. The result is the de-stigmatization of a once-taboo subject and a better understanding of how to find help.
Dan Wegmueller, a farmer from Monroe, Wisconsin, hit a low point in 2018. The family dairy operation, started by his grandfather in the 1930s, was struggling. To bring in extra income, he and his wife had decided to get into the Airbnb business. They planned to offer farm stays, complete with horseback riding, chores and fresh-from-the-farm produce and milk. People in the agricultural community — milk truck drivers, service providers — laughed at the idea.
“They didn’t think anyone would pay money for those things,” Wegmueller said. “At the time, we weren’t far enough into it to know if it would work. It was still an idea.”
Wegmueller reached out to someone he was close to, hoping for encouragement. The conversation did not go well.
“That person didn’t know how to talk to someone going through a personal crisis,” Wegmueller recalled. “As well-meaning as they were, they said everything wrong. It was horrible to be on the receiving end of that. It was a very dark time for me.”
A dark time can be a dangerous time. Over the last two decades, studies have shown that farmers are at least twice as likely to die by suicide as members of the general population. Between 2004 and 2018, there were 190 suicide deaths of Wisconsin farmers, according to a 2023 study led by Sara Kohlbeck, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin. An additional 85 Wisconsin farmers died by suicide between 2019 and 2024, according to data compiled by Lindsay Emer, a public health researcher for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
In recent articles, The New York Times and the Green Bay Press Gazette cited financial instability and the possibility of foreclosure as key stressors for Wisconsin’s farmers. Accustomed to working hard and keeping silent about problems, many farmers don’t reach out for help. Those who do often don’t receive the support they need.
“Access to mental health resources across Wisconsin’s farming communities is in crisis,” said Amy Kind, associate dean for social health sciences and programs for the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and executive director for WPP. “We recognized an opportunity to help.”
Commitment to rural health runs deep within the school, which offers rural health care training programs such as the Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine and is home to the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health.
In 2020, WPP awarded $1 million to the Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program (SWCAP) to address the growing crisis. These funds helped create Farm Well Wisconsin, an ecosystem of support to foster farmer resilience. Led by Chris Frakes, a senior director at SWCAP, the program set out to engage members of farming communities in southwest Wisconsin in mental health education and interventions to help prevent farmer suicide.
“We realized early on that the social connection piece is a protective factor,” Frakes explained. “We thought if we could bring farmers together in spots where they are already comfortable and sneak in some information about mental health, we could help them form protective connections.”
Frakes met Wegmueller at one of these outreach events. His crisis had passed, but the memory of it was vivid. He was drawn to Frakes’ efforts and approach.
“I could immediately see what Chris was working towards,” he said. “Formulating the right responses to people in crisis can literally save a life. That is the value of that kind of training.”
Wegmueller agreed to serve on a farmer wellness advisory coalition to discuss various interventions — what might work, what wouldn’t. That panel’s input helped Frakes to position Farm Well for further growth.
Farm Well adopted a suicide awareness curriculum called safeTALK with a track record of success in rural communities. The model featured four-hour workshops attended by farm families and community members. From 2020 to 2025, Farm Well’s safeTALK sessions drew a total of 338 participants from across southwest Wisconsin.
Spouses, mothers, ministers, social workers, community leaders, and teachers signed up to learn how to ask the right questions and offer support to loved ones in crisis.
“SafeTALK requires some role play, which made people uncomfortable,” Frakes recalled. “You have to ask somebody, ‘Are you thinking of killing yourself?’ It is a hard question, but it is really important. We wanted to help people develop empathetic listening skills.”
As of December 2025, Farm Well’s safeTALK and other outreach programs had reached more than 1,200 participants from the five counties represented by SWCAP: Green, Grant, Lafayette, Iowa and Richland.
“The Farm Well initiative has created a crucial support network within southwest Wisconsin’s farming communities, training hundreds of rural community members in peer support, community resources and suicide prevention,” said Kind. “It is a shining example of how WPP advances its commitment to improving the health of people in our state.”
Collaborative partnerships proved key to Farm Well’s success. In addition to UW-Extension, a trusted resource in farming communities, the group partnered with the Wisconsin Farm Center, a group within the state’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection on free telehealth counseling sessions for farmers and other outreach efforts. Soil Sisters, a network of women farmers in the area, helped promote programs to farmers and many of its members attended training workshops. Some agriculture-related businesses, including a seed company and a company that hauled and spread manure, sent employees to receive Farm Well’s safeTALK training in suicide risk alertness.
“Often an ag company’s workers are the ones who recognize that something is not right on a farm,” Frakes said. “When farmers are in distress, it’s common to see visual signs such as animal neglect or broken equipment in the driveway. These companies said, ‘It’s important that our folks understand how to help.’”
Training doctors to recognize signs of distress in farmers is critical to preventing farmer suicide.
Farm Well worked with UW’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health to offer training for its residents and medical students pursuing tracks in rural medicine.
In 2019, Dr. Kelsey Schmidt, a member of the department’s rural health equity track in the family medicine residency program, offered to host a training session for fellow residents on her family’s farm. Schmidt and her advisors invited residents to hear speakers on farm economics, mental health, farm-related illnesses and injuries, and more. The event ended with Schmidt’s husband, a beef and crop farmer, giving the group a safety tour of the barn and acreage.
“You have to be prepared to help the people you are going to serve,” said Schmidt, who now practices at two rural clinics run by SSM Health in Brodhead and Albany, Wisconsin. “A rural physician must realize that the state of a farmer’s health is largely dictated by what’s happening on the farm. If you don’t know what a farm looks like, or what they are dealing with on a day-to-day basis, how can you build the rapport needed to help them through difficulties?”
Frakes cited the destigmatization of suicide and mental health as one of the program’s major impacts. Even the media’s way of covering mental health issues has changed in the five years that Farm Well has been active in the region. Frakes pointed to a report produced as part of a separate, 8-year SWCAP project funded by Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment, which is WPP’s sister program at the Medical College of Wisconsin, that addressed accessibility, availability and acceptability of mental and behavioral health in southwestern Wisconsin. The report showed that from 2022–2024, coverage of mental health topics changed across southwestern Wisconsin, with a decrease in negative characterizations and an increase in more inclusive, supportive language.
“We have seen a shift in the region, in terms of the way that people talk about mental health,” Frakes said. “We surveyed participants at the beginning and end of workshops. People would come in with a certain level of discomfort in discussing mental health issues, and they would leave with a gigantic increase in their comfort level. When we surveyed some of the same people six months later, at different events, it was clear they had retained those gains.”
Wegmueller said that Farm Well’s destigmatization of depression and suicide is making people feel less alone. He pointed to a recent talk he had with a farmer friend who was worried about his bills.
“We had a natural, open conversation about how tough it is, and how he’s sometimes not sure he’ll make it through. I shared with him that we all go through this in one way or another, and that there are resources available,” Wegmueller said. “I attribute the training I received through Farm Well’s safeTALK program to my greater comfort discussing this topic.”
Wegmueller is no longer able to make ends meet solely as a dairy farmer. However, his farm stay business, which includes products he sells directly to consumers, is making it possible to keep his farm in the family.
Banner image by Jeff Miller / UW–Madison
All other photos by Sirtaj Grewel and Jay Gullixson, Media Solutions
Video by Bravebird Productions
