A new initiative focusing on farmer health and wellbeing – entitled On Feírm Ground – was launched this morning (Monday, October 19).
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive (HSE), Teagasc and IT Carlow came together to fund a programme of research.
This research has now resulted in a training programme that will see agricultural advisors engage with farmers on their health and wellbeing over the farm gate.
L-R: Minister Heydon; Sean Cooke, CEO Men’s Development Network; and Minister Feighan. Image source: Ryan Byrne, Inpho
The programme will be led by charity The Men’s Development Network, as part of Engage, the National Men’s Training Programme, and will train 800 agricultural advisors.
Minister of State with responsibility for research and development, farm safety and new market development, Martin Heydon and Minister of State for Public Health, Well Being and the National Drugs Strategy, Frank Feighan, launched the programme today.
Minister Heydon reaffirmed the crucial importance of health and wellbeing in ensuring improvements in farm safety, saying:
There is ample evidence out there to show that farmer health and wellbeing play a major role in farm safety. How can a farmer successfully look after crops or animals if they cannot look after themselves?
“I know that the training of agricultural advisors to engage with and signpost supports to farmers over the farm gate will have a significant impact and I am delighted to be supporting such a collaborative initiative.”
Minister Feighan said: “‘On Feírm Ground’ presents a genuine opportunity to equip farm advisors with a toolkit of supports in relation to physical and psychological wellbeing.
“Farmers, male and female, will directly benefit by being able to access reliable and consistent health information and support to improve their health and wellbeing.”
HSE Health and Wellbeing, which lead on the implementation of the Healthy Ireland Men – Action Plan to promote men’s health, has also funded this initiative and supported it through adapting existing men’s health programmes.
L-R: Minister Feighan; Sean Cooke, CEO Men’s Development Network; and Minister Heydon. Image source: Ryan Byrne, Inpho
As well as launching the initiative, an interim report was made available by the research partners at IT Carlow, led by Dr. Noel Richardson, director of IT Carlow’s National Centre for Men’s Health.
Dr. Richardson said: “It is well established that, compared to other occupational groups, farmers in Ireland experience a disproportionate burden of health problems, which undermine the profitability, competitiveness and sustainability of farming.
“The report highlights a multitude of challenges concerning experiences with farming and the broader occupation of farming, including isolation and the decline of rural communities, issues relating to succession and inheritance, increasing pressures to scale up, changing farming roles and increasing paperwork demands, stresses associated with seasonal workloads, financial stress, and the pressures associated with being self-employed.
The research findings recommend that, when designing the ‘On Feírm Ground’ training programme, it focuses on the individual social determinants affecting the health and wellbeing of both male and female farmers.
It also “adopts a strengths-based approach to farmers’ health and sets out clear roles, responsibilities and boundaries for advisors in their health role”, Dr. Richardson concluded.