Fwd: Suicide fear for foot-and-mouth farmers - Ananova Alerting

Originally from: Molly Maxwell
                        
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Originally from: "Ananova" <533...>
To: Molly Maxwell <...>
Subject: Suicide fear for foot-and-mouth farmers – Ananova Alerting Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 12:31:51 GMT

The numbers of suicides among farmers following the foot-and-mouth crisis is expected to rise through the winter.

The conference for mental health professionals near Bristol heard that there is still a fear that the disease will return.

Brian Warren, of the Farm Crisis Network, told the conference that many farmers were suffering from depression, had family and relationship problems, and some were turning to alcohol and drugs.

Mr Warren said: "The winter months are going to be more difficult. The problems have not yet begun in agriculture. Suicide is one of the things we are going to be looking at more in the future."

He also said there was a great feeling of helplessness among farmers, who were used to controlling their own lives, which added to the problems.

The conference heard that farming communities were still living in fear that the virus, which thrives in damp conditions, would return as winter approached.

*Foot-and-mouth story sent by Ananova