A new study has highlighted that spouses and children frequently function as the “invisible workforce” on family farms, bearing the weight of unpaid labour, intense domestic burdens and severe “role overload”.

The Farm FaMHealth project is an initiative by Dublin City University and funded by Research Ireland where 447 Irish farm family members were surveyed.

This research uncovers a gap where the wider farm family experiences similar mental health challenges as the primary farmer. However, family members often fail to seek help until they reach a point of severe crisis.

ADVERTISEMENT

Some 68% of surveyed farm family members are employed off-farm, with 57% working full-time, yet 43% still perform daily physical farm labour.

Spouses – particularly women – often manage household duties, childcare and farm administration while working off-farm to keep the business financially viable, often without formal wages or recognition.

Mental health issues

The study also found that 60% of participants have not sought help for mental health issues, while 30% had “low resilient coping” capacities, made worse by the traditional expectations of stoicism and self-reliance, a cultural norm and a major barrier in farm family members seeking help.

Another key finding of the report is that farm family members often do not access existing mental health supports targeting agricultural populations simply because they do not identify as farmers themselves.

Because they don’t view themselves as the primary farm operator, they do not tend to engage with available supports.

“Previous research has focused almost exclusively on primary farmers,” co-principal investigator of the project professor Siobhán O’Connor explained.

“However, our qualitative phase showed that spouses and children face identical pressures. Because they don’t view themselves as the primary farm operator, they do not tend to engage with available supports.

"They suffer in silence, with many juggling off-farm employment and daily manual labour to keep the farm afloat.”

It also found that those who previously sought professional help reported high levels of psychological distress and burnout compared with those who did not, indicating that the current mental healthcare systems may not be effective for this population.

Mental health training programme

The Farm FaMHealth project has designed a specialised mental health training programme in response to these findings, launching at the end of July. Recruitment is ongoing for sessions across the country.

The programme is focused on early prevention, help-seeking and daily mutual support.

The programme aims to:

  • Educate family members on how to spot the signs of stress, anxiety and depression in themselves and their loved ones before burnout.
  • Link mental health awareness directly to daily farming stressors, such as succession planning, financial pressures and regulatory inspections, making the conversation relatable and reducing stigma.
  • Offer concise periodic sessions in hybrid (both online and in-person) formats to accommodate demanding farm schedules.

    • Farm family members are being urged to sign up for upcoming regional training sessions.

    For more information on the report, regional training dates or to register for the upcoming intervention, visit the official project portal.