“Horrific” farm suicide crisis: Welsh company trains workers to help save lives

Staff at a Welsh agricultural company have been trained to spot warning signs of suicide as part of a campaign to tackle the mental health crisis in farming.

Drivers, office staff and senior managers at Platts Group, based in Llay, near Wrexham, have completed potentially life-saving training to help them recognise farmers in distress and guide them towards support.

Managing director Caroline Platt said the Farming Community Network (FCN) was introduced so the company could help address what she described as “horrific” levels of suicide within the farming industry.

Workers from all three divisions of the group – Platts Agriculture which supplies animal bedding, Platts Commercial Services and Platts Transport – have received the training.

Platts was launched in 1973 by Caroline’s farming parents Robert and Christine Platt, and she said agriculture and those who worked within the industry remained at the heart of the business.

The FCN said male farmworkers in the UK have been found to have suicide rates about three times higher than the national average for men.

Caroline, who was among those who underwent the FCN training, said: “Farmers are really resilient by nature – they are very proud people but they are often not very good at sharing their emotions and their feelings.

“It is so important for people to have that ability to go and talk to somebody about their internal thoughts.

“There are farming families I know in the Wrexham area that have suffered generational suicide.”

According to Caroline, she organised for two full days of training at the company’s HQ, with 14 members of staff taking part.

Among those who took part was people and engagement executive Sioned Bryden-Nowell, who is from Wrexham and lives in Audlem.

She said: “It’s important to have that awareness of mental health challenges generally and in the farming industry in particular.

“There are so many pressures that farmers go through that most people don’t really realise.

“I do quite a few of the trade shows where we speak to hundreds of farmers every day.

“Through the training, we learned techniques on how to speak to people to get them to open up, and also to recognise if somebody is struggling on their farm.

“Up at AgriScot for example we spoke to one family with three generations all coming to the show together.

“The grandad was talking about financial worries and other concerns and we were able to provide FCN guidance and explained the support that can be offered.

“We have the information at all our shows and give it to customers through their invoices.

“When our drivers are delivering to farms, they have the time to speak to the farmers and see how they are.

“Some of the farmers don’t see anyone, they just work on their own, so it’s important to have that connection.

“It is the same on the phone, we don’t just make a call to make a sale, we want to speak to the farmers and understand how they are, how they feel.

“Sometimes you just don’t know what is going on underneath the surface.”

Tom Mortimer, the group transport manager who is from Nantwich and lives in Whitchurch, said: “I actually started working on a farm when I was 11, and I am still very much in touch with the farming community.

“All my friends are farmers, and farming is still my passion.

“There are a lot of people out there who admire our farmers, but sometimes I think the farmers don’t necessarily know that.

“When they get out of bed in the morning, they might have 200 cows, 1,000 cows, under their care and that’s a big weight on your shoulders.

“Then they have worries about the weather, their crops, the prices they will get, their falling income – how is that not going to affect somebody’s mental health?

“The training we received from FCN was really good, especially because the people who we were introduced to are from farming backgrounds themselves.”

Group operations manager Toby Lewis said: “We’ve all got our issues and troubles, so if you can engage in conversation when you chat to a farmer, I think that’s really positive.

“If you stay on a farm for just that five minutes longer to have a conversation, I think that’s one of the best things you can do.

“Platts gives that time to our employees and to our customers.”

On top of the training of staff to spot mental health issues, Platts have taken further action to do their bit to help those struggling.

The company has donated a percentage of its sales to FCN, last year handing over more than £15,000.

The company created a video to promote FCN’s services, specifically addressing winter isolation, and hosted National Manager for Wales Linda Jones for a Q&A on its stand at last year’s Royal Welsh Show.

It stocks and distributes FCN leaflets and helpline information on all its stands at trade shows all over the country, signposting customers to their services if they feel it’s helpful.

Platts featured the charity in its Shout About Farming campaign, and regularly posts links to their website and helplines on its social media.

The training to Platts was provided by FCN’s Linda Jones who said: “All the staff I trained were highly motivated to learn more about the pressures and stressors in farming and how they could help their clients.

“It’s wonderful to see that Platts Agriculture are really thinking about the physical and mental health of their customers.”

She said FCN received about 1,300 helpline calls in 2024 and in addition to these, there would be calls directly to support staff and volunteers.

Marketing executive Hattie Worthington is the point of contact at Platts for the FCN initiative and to talk to a sympathetic person who understands farmers and rural life, call the helpline on 03000 111 999.