Minnesota is considering doubling its number of rural mental health counselors. To two.

Ted Matthews drove past acres of fields, racing to meet with a farmer who called threatening to kill himself. That’s when he got a call from another farmer in a different part of the state who was also threatening suicide. Since he couldn’t be in two places at once, he frantically got on his phone to try to find someone else who could help the second farmer.Matthews might have the toughest job in the state of Minnesota. As the lone rural mental health counselor for the entire state employed by the Department of Agriculture, he gets 15 calls on a slow day and as many as 40 calls on a busy day. “People constantly talk to me about suicide,” he said. He has worked alone for more than two decades, but there is now a proposal being considered by legislators this year to increase the number of people fielding calls from farmers and others in crisis by 100 percent — in other words, there would be a total of two full-time rural health counselors, including Matthews. It’s greatly needed, said Matthews and others who testified before the Minnesota House Agriculture Finance Committee.