Student helps create mental health site for farmers 4 hours ago Madison Smith freely admits it’s not necessarily the academic journey she anticipated. The recent graduate from the University of Georgia’s School of Social Work grew up on a small farm her grandfather operated in North Georgia. She initially thought she had left that life behind, but a project in the final year of her master’s degree program ultimately would marry them together. Farmers in trouble According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, farmers in the U.S. have one of the highest rates of suicide for any vocational group. This sobering statistic is the primary driver behind a recently launched initiative between the School of Social Work and the American Farm Bureau Federation aimed at facilitating greater use of mental health resources for farmers and ranchers.