the research team with responsibilities for communication of findings through Extension and other outreach. To learn more about the study, go to: https://www.hirednag.net/ The research team concluded that with two-thirds of the farmers experiencing a preexisting condition and three-fourths believing that health insurance was a risk management strategy for farmers, health insurance was clearly not just a private problem but a public issue--a national farm policy issue. Farmers believed that USDA should address the issue. These research findings became the driver for engaging the public in responding to health and health insurance issues impacting the farming population. To make the findings public, researchers from the AFRI grant held a summit in 2016 where farmers, farmer-serving organizations, elected officials and interested others came together to learn about the findings. They identified actions that could be taken collectively and individually to improve access to health care and health insurance. Both Maria and Bonnie participated in that Vermont based Summit.
Based on the summit, a team from Delaware, Maryland and Ohio applied for, and received, funding to conduct a coordinated community risk management approach to health and health insurance among farm enterprises. Funding was provided by the Northeast Regional Center of Rural Development. Team members, with input from state planning committees, determined that a forum in each state would be the most appropriate means of engaging people.
By the time the forums were held in 2018-2019, mental health of farmers had risen as a public issue led by an increase in suicides among farmers and became a driver for three forums focused on strengthening health and farm vitality. Even as we were monitoring results from these two forums, we were working on reframing stress as an issue to build resilience across the farming population. We were also working on a framework to build the case for exp anding Extension’s role from one of technical assistance with stress reduction to one of public engagement in stressors that go beyond the boundary of the farm. And we were working on tools to enable Extension educators from multiple disciplines and other professionals to transcend their own disciplinary and sector boundaries.
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