Disjointed puppets in peasant overalls, the false hanged men, attached to bridges or to the arms of excavators, have multiplied during the last agricultural demonstrations, becoming a symbol of the malaise of the profession.
Suicide, Dominique Pene, a 53-year-old farmer, assures that he no longer thinks about it today. But five years ago, he had to call on the "prevention of distress" unit of the MSA, the social security organization for farmers.
In a remote corner of the Hautes-Pyrenees, the farmer contemplates the Montaigu, a peak overlooking his farm. It is there, in "his" mountain, that he takes refuge in case of a wave of sadness.
"I don't hide the fact that I had suicidal thoughts," he told AFP.
Confiding in someone stirs emotion in the stocky breeder with blue-green eyes, who chokes back a tear. “Sorry.”
Rising at dawn every day, he feeds and cares for his 76 Aubrac cows, cleans their stalls and brings in the straw for the winter. Then there's the paperwork, all without any real holidays or weekends, he says, a few strands of straw hanging from his brown waistcoat.
In 2019, this farmer based in Germs-sur-l'Oussouet, near Lourdes, felt like he was losing his footing when, in addition to his daily work, he was faced with "cash flow problems". He then asked for help from the Mutualité sociale agricole (MSA).
– “I wasn’t well” –
"The social worker saw that I wasn't well, and she contacted Joelle."
Joelle Dupuy coordinates the MSA Midi-Pyrenees-Sud’s malaise prevention unit, which covers four departments.
At the end of 2024, she will be supporting around a hundred farmers, some for months, others for years.
However, most operators grimace when the MSA is mentioned, better known for the contributions that must be paid to it. To the point that this year, its offices in Nimes were attacked and those in Narbonne were set on fire.
Concretely, the unit offers farmers in the greatest difficulty the opportunity to see a psychologist free of charge or to reschedule their contributions.
Cornered, 529 farmers took their own lives in 2016 in France, according to the latest MSA report.
For farmers who "have always functioned like Superman", the medical glitch often causes "all the existential pillars to waver", notes Joelle Dupuy.
For Dominique Pene, the challenge was to convince him to put aside his pride to have a disability recognized following two serious accidents and thus become eligible for assistance from the MSA to buy a "farm valet", a small, all-purpose mechanized cart, for 32,000 euros.
A third of the people supported are affected by this type of health problem, adds Joelle Dupuy.
"It's a life that we spend at work," explains psychologist Corina Claude, who has been following farmers sent by the MSA for 15 years. "When you can no longer work well, it's difficult not to lose your self-esteem."
The therapist therefore tries to "help the person to keep perspective, not to sink, to tell themselves that even if this project ends, for example a farm that has to close, there is still meaning in having invested so much in it."
She systematically assesses the risk of suicide in these patients, which is increased by the frequent presence of hunting rifles in the home. In the event of dark thoughts, she reminds the national suicide prevention number (3114) and that of the Agri'ecoute line (0969392919). She even alerts the fire brigade if the danger is imminent.
– “Welcoming distress” –
Sometimes, as with 44-year-old beekeeper Soetkin Van Hee, the cell sends a farm worker to provide respite.
After a few good years, the farmer's harvests in Seix (Ariege) had declined: "I was in a panic," she says. Trapped by credits to repay at the beginning of the 2020s, "everything was closing in around me, I didn't know what to do."
She then contacted the cell. And Joelle Dupuy managed to "welcome the distress I was in". Then, "everything went very quickly": the cell exempted her from her contributions for the year, referred her to a psychologist and offered her a farm worker for 7 days.
Today, Dominique Pene continues to climb Montaigu. "I'm going to the mountains," he tells his partner Magaly, who understands that he needs to "completely clear his head."
Up there, he "listens to the silence. The bells of the cows, the sheep, the wind, the birds, and all of that becomes a therapy." "They saved him for me," Magaly sums up.
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