sentinels to save from discomfort

Sentinels in the agricultural world are people trained by the Mutualité Sociale Agricole to respond through listening and proximity to the discomfort of farmers. Suicide prevention is the ultimate goal of the sentinels. The training implemented for a year in Haute-Loire aims to find local distress vigilance relays.

Isabelle Hugon has been a farmer in Haute-Loire for over forty years. She notes the growing unease among her colleagues. “People are more and more isolated. We are becoming invisible, we will say. People work a lot alone. Farmers are moving away with the farms that are expanding. Neighbors are further and further away and that's that way they find themselves all alone, isolated.” Isabelle's distress is often detected by signs of abandonment or disesteem of the profession. Talking, breaking isolation and silence, that's why she chose to be a sentinel of the Mutualité Sociale Agricole (MSA). “We are the first link in the chain, to avoid discomfort and the last resort, suicide. When you can save someone, you're happy! »

Suicide is still very present among farmers, as in other professions. All professions combined, in France, nearly 9,000 people per year kill themselves, one suicide every 40 minutes: “In agriculture, the causes are multifactorial. There is sometimes the agricultural crisis, the fact that we work with living things, the weather, the animals… There are family causes too. Often, it is not just one cause but the multiplicity of causes which provokes actions”regrets Christian Gouy, wellness representative in Haute-Loire for the MSA.

The Mutualité Sociale Agricole provides training, once or twice a year, to farmers but also to technicians from the Chamber of Agriculture, veterinarians, health services and even accountants: “All the sentries will have to go and spot something that is hidden. The more people are trained to spot the signs of a suicidal crisis, the more certain we are that we can help people get out of this suicidal crisis. In general, people, when they have someone who says to them “I'm worried about you, I see you're not well, you need help”, when someone is proactive and goes to them to saying that he sees that they are suffering, people feel confident. They accept help. The person is relieved because they are no longer alone”welcomes Aurélie Lantrade-Faure, psychologist who trains the sentinels.

Everyone wants to stop the suicidal crisis: “We have a job where patriarchy and the views of elders are sometimes a little heavy. We need to change these mentalities because our young people are not going to want to work like that. We need to make our young people want to become farmers and thrive in this profession.” explains Céline Julien, farmer. In Auvergne, for the moment, 140 sentinels are trying to lift the taboo of unhappiness on farms. A distress that is not expressed in demonstrations or blockades but, on the contrary, results in the isolation and silence of people.