2020|09|08: Free telehealth consultation for farmers – The South Gippsland Sentinel-Times

Farmer Health eNews September 2020

Find out all the latest from the National Centre for Farmer Health

• Online Events in September
  • Cuppa with the Women of the NCFH to celebrate Women’s Health Week
  • South Gippsland Cows in a Cloud Dairy Expo – book your free online health check
• #SnapshotRuralVic Campaign is gaining momentum – check the latest entries
• Mental Health 4 Ag – new mental health project needs your involvement
• Wellness Wednesday

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Directors Blog – Farmer Health Matters: Heads up with mask wearing

A recent paper indicated that whilst handwashing and social distancing are appropriate, they are insufficient to provide protection from virus-carrying respiratory micro droplets released into the air by infected people.(1)

From midnight on August 2, regional Victorians were required to wear face masks—including farmers. For many farmers, home is also their workplace and therefore must wear a mask if they have staff coming and going from the farm property. When you live and work in a family environment that is important because if you pick up COVID-19 from someone visiting the farm, you are very likely to take it into your home and infect your family. Even if visitors or staff feel well the viral load peaks in the day before symptoms of COVID-19 begin and just speaking is enough to expel virus-carrying droplets that can infect you, your family and staff.(2)

It’s pretty easy to understand why wearing a mask helps provide protection if you do the maths. An average person takes 23040 breaths per day, breathing in around 11000 litres of air. Think of an 11000 litre water tank. With each breath we inhale and exhale hundreds of biological particles, which include pollen, animal and human dander, plant debris, bacteria, and viruses. The smallest of these are viruses of up to 0.1 micron in size which is 200 times finer than your 20 micron wool. A recent experiment using high-speed video found hundreds of droplets were generated when saying a simple phrase, but that nearly all these droplets were blocked when the mouth was covered.(3)

This simple demonstration by Rich Davis, a Clinical Microbiology Lab Director(4) shows the effect of wearing a mask and not wearing a mask on bacterial spread (not viral spread) when sneezing, talking and coughing.  He did this using bacterial culture plates.

Figure 1: Effect of wearing a mask and not wearing a mask on bacterial spread

According to Mr Davis ‘It is likely that smaller aerosolized droplets ( that could carry viruses like COVID-19) are also produced during coughing and sneezing and that these would travel further and stay in the air longer than larger droplets’. Masks can help stop someone who has an infection -and doesn’t know it – from passing it on and can also help prevent you getting sick.

For those Australians (not in Victoria) the World Health Organisation is now recommending face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19(5) and as outbreaks and second and third waves occur being prepared. Our experience in Victoria is that when you need them (masks) you need them and having ready made or stocks of disposable masks on hand is a good idea.  Stores ran out of masks for sale and elastic for mask making had length limits in place. As farms are getting into their busy season- lamb marking, calving, silage making, shearing, harvesting, mango season and selling stock- it is important that we don’t see a rise in COVID- 19 resulting in further lockdowns.

Wearing a mask can do  more than just filter air,  it can also help with social distancing through how we perceive others and how willing we are to get to close to strangers.(6) It is also great to see the VFF promoting #Masksonfarms on twitter – do check it out.

Remember: Wearing a clean mask every time you leave your house makes good sense. There are lots of mask patterns available online but make sure they cover both your nose and mouth and have 3 layers.(7)

Farmer Health eNews August 2020

Find out all the latest from the National Centre for Farmer Health

• #SnapshotRuralVic – get involved!
• Farm Safety Week wrap up
• New Working Group expressions of interest; co-designing a peer-supported approach to improve mental health in rural farming communities
• Wellness Wednesday

View the August 2020 eNews

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2020-06-15: Working together with a shared understanding: growing workforce putting farmer health in the spotlight – Partyline

Despite continued higher rates of workplace injuries, earlier morbidity and mortality and challenging climatic environments, few formal programs focus on the health, wellbeing and safety of farmers. In the farming context, culturally competent professionals have a greater understanding of the unique hazards and conditions farmers face and therefore be able to obtain more detailed histories, make better diagnosis and provide more appropriate treatments, interventions and discharge plans.

This notion extends beyond health workers to professionals working in agricultural communities and in policy development. Deakin University’s Agricultural Health and Medicine unit, developed in 2010, developed to increase cultural competence and empower rural professionals to improve the health, wellbeing and safety outcomes of farming populations in Australia.

“Our workforce across Australia continues to grow as more and more health professionals complete their Graduate Certificate in Agricultural Health and Medicine,” said National Centre for Farmer Health Business Development and Industry Engagement Manager, Cecilia Fitzgerald.

“This, coupled with dynamic and effective collaborations with our industry partners, means together we are able to engage with rural communities, increasing their health literacy and make a real difference”.

Partnerships and collaborations reinforce the understanding that to engage rural communities and change the culture surrounding taking care of your health, wellbeing and safety requires consistent messages shared and spread by both the health and agricultural industries working together.

Throughout 2019, the Murrumbidgee Primary Health Network (MPHN), through the Australian Government’s ‘Empowering our Communities’ initiative, partnered with the National Centre for Farmer Health to deliver Health and Lifestyle Assessments to people impacted by drought across the Murrumbidgee region.

MPHN was one of nine Primary Health Networks to be funded under the Empowering our Communities initiative to provide additional mental health support to help farmers and rural communities to deal with the uncertainty, stress and anxiety of drought conditions.

“It was important to engage with activities that help build community capacity and foster long-term resilience,” said MPHN Chief Executive Officer Melissa Neal.

“Offering free health check-ups through the NCFH is one way people living in drought affected communities can engage in a fairly neutral and private way with a health professional and receive a specialized assessment of their general and mental health.”

The success of these collaborations comes as a result of the understanding that to engage communities and change the culture surrounding taking care of your health, wellbeing and safety requires consistent messages shared and spread by both the health and agricultural industries working together.

National Centre for Farmer Health Agrihealth professional, RN, and Agicultural Health and Medicine graduate, Amelia Cottrell from NSW is one of a team of nurses using their expert understanding of Agricultural Health to conduct the health checks across the country.

“The National Centre for Farmer Health has helped me fulfil my passion to improve the health and wellbeing of rural communities through conducting HLA’s and educating participants of the health risks associated with the Agricultural industry and to make a positive change to farmers lives,” said Amelia.

Fellow graduate, RN and farmer, Jeanne Van Der Geest Dekker from Victoria also understands the importance of effective engagement of communities in their health, wellbeing and safety.

“Coping with stress on farm has its unique challenges,” she said.

“It’s often isolating with many factors affecting stress on farm – for example drought, fire, floods and economic downturn.  Many have survived years of persistent stress but having an awareness of stress and how it manifests into physical, emotional and behavioural symptoms is key to dealing with stress.  It’s about finding the balance.”

Victorian farmer Logan Symes received a health check in 2019, afterwards saying: “If I didn’t get a free health check from you guys, I wouldn’t have discovered that I had type one diabetes at an early stage”.

To learn more about the Graduate Certificate of Agricultural Health and Medicine and our partnerships and  how to apply for July 2020 commencement visit www.farmerhealth.org.au.

View article: 2020-06-15: Working together with a shared understanding: growing workforce putting farmer health in the spotlight – Partyline

Looking after your most important asset, your mind – Podcast: Safe Ag Systems

Eight Australians die every day by suicide. 75% of these people are male and people in rural populations are 2 times more likely to die by suicide. So why is there over 65,000 Australians attempting suicide each year and is there anything that can be done about it?

Kirby Richmond-Davis from Safe Ag Systems caught up with Al Gabb for Farm Safety Week to have a conversation about his experience.

2020-07-20: Farmer health is better with specialist Ag health and medicine support – Press Release: Deakin University

View Publication: CLICK HERE

Read on Deakin website: CLICK HERE

Mallee Sustainable Farming Podcast 4 – Child Safety on farm

LOOKING AFTER YOUR MOST IMPORTANT FARM ASSET – New Podcast Episode out now!

We’re shining a light on PPE and why it is SO important in your day to day farming operations.

In this episode we’re talking about Child Safety on Farms!

Welcome to our episode guest speaker, Jacquie Cotton (National Centre for Farmer Health).

We discuss:

Where to start when it comes to discussing child safety on your farm.
Practical safety ideas
School Holiday farm fun – how to approach child safety topics with your family, friends and community.

Handy resources:

https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/your-industry/agriculture,-forestry-and-fishing/farming/child-safety-on-farms  
https://www.vff.org.au/policy/farm-safety/

View more podcasts on the MSF website

Directors Blog – Farmer Health Matters and Farm Safety Week

by Dr Susan Brumby
Twitter: @brumby_susan

Across Australia 27% of all workplace fatalities occur in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries and yet they make up less than 3% of the total workforce(1). Despite a variety of programs to address this tragedy, the rate has not changed significantly over the last decade despite substantial improvements being made in other occupations such as mining and construction.

But it’s not just higher rates of workplace deaths. Shorter life expectancy and poor health outcomes compared to metropolitan populations appear an accepted risk of rural and agricultural life. Research suggests higher rates of preventable conditions such as cardiovascular disease, injury, diabetes, suicide, loss of hearing, some cancers and less access to services as the cause for shorter life expectancy(2)_.

Is farmer health a new problem?

This isn’t a new problem. Farmer health was an issue when the father of Occupational Medicine, Bernardino Ramazzini wrote his seminal work Diseases in Workers back in 1713(3). Few programs— nationally or globally —focus exclusively on the health, wellbeing and safety of farmers. The national Safe Work and state based WorkSafe organisations recognise agriculture as a high priority sector focusing on prevention of workplace fatalities and injuries. Various mental health organisations have a specific focus on rural/farming communities, particularly males where suicides remain high. There are also initiatives that focus on building the social capacity and resilience of rural and regional communities and government incentives to attract medical staff to our rural and regional areas. All of these are aiming to address the health, wellbeing and safety of farmers and agricultural workers.

Walking in their shoes

Farming men and women trust health and rural professionals who know farming realities and the type of workplace that farms are. Numerous studies have reported this. Being able to empathise and engage with farmers and agricultural workers is easier when you have walked in their shoes.

Farm Safety Week across the globe | 20-25 July 2020

This week is Farm Safety Week. Over the next 5 weeks I am going to release a weekly infographic on a farmer health matter that we believe is important.

Our hope at the National Centre for Farmer Health is that farmers and rural and health professionals find the infographics a handy reminder to always consider farmer health and not just during farm safety week.

References:

1. SAFE WORK AUSTRALIA 2019. Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities, Australia 2018. Canberra: Safe Work Australia
2. AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF HEALTH AND WELFARE 2019. Rural & remote health. Cat. no. PHE 255 Canberra: AIHW.
3. RAMAZZINI, B. 1949. De Morbis Artificum Bernardini Ramazzini Diatriba (The diseases of workers). The Latin text of 1713 revised, with translation and notes by Wilmer Cave Wright. The History of Medicine Series. Chicago:: University of Chicago Press issued under the auspices of the Library of the New York Academy of Medicine.

2020-08-27: National Centre for Farmer Health: Social media campaign showcases country life during coronavirus – The Weekly Times

Poster boy: Dougal and Bo taking it easy after a long day tree planting. Picture: Prue McAllister

Article: Bethany Griffiths

A SOCIAL media campaign is hoping to connect isolated rural Victorians through sharing digital stories of how life has changed during the pandemic.

Run by the National Centre for Farmer Health, the #SnapshotRuralVic campaign kicked off at the start of the month and has already seen tales of how differently life in the country looks, from socially-distanced bonfires to remote learning in the ute.

“#SnapshotRuralVic aims to unite Victorians through storytelling, humour and creativity.

Social media has become a part of everyday life for many Victorians, and now we hope to turn the spotlight onto rural Victorians and share their stories across the digital landscape,” project officer Hilary McAllister said.

Entrants can win weekly prizes for showing off their creativity through pictures, poems or even Tik Toks. Every submission received will be collated into a coffee book as a hard copy time capsule of what life looked like throughout coronavirus.

“The campaign is now in its second week and already we’ve had good traction across both Instagram and Facebook. We’ve had some great photos come through of what people are up to during this unprecedented time, and stories of how people are coping with the ever-changing circumstances,” Ms McAllister said.

“It’s interesting to think that plenty of men and women are getting out of bed on frosty mornings to check on their stock, often going at it alone and nothing to keep them company but the sunset and bleating lambs. But really across the state, there are hundreds of farmers doing the same thing. It’s really nice that sharing through #SnapshotRuralVic shares these personal experiences and reminds people that they are actually not alone.”

Though working on the farm remains virtually the same for many, the ways in which people have had to adapt to connecting with the wider community has certainly changed, and showing that off is a focus of the campaign.

“From the local CFA meetings embracing Zoom technology, to people learning the art of mask making and getting their hands dirty in the vegetable garden, I hope #SnapshotRuralVic can help educate, inspire and hopefully provide some insight into rural life during these troubling times,” Ms McAllister said.

Gear Up for Ag

2020-08-21: Lockdown’s upshot for bush health – Farm Weekly

by Shan Goodwin

FOR all the challenges lockdowns have delivered, one of the upshots has been those in the bush now have access to more mental health and wellbeing services than they ever have before.

At the same time, acceptance of the vital need to look after mental health in farming communities has never been stronger.

Still, farmers wait far too long before seeking help.

These are some of the insights to come from those at the forefront of delivering health services to farming communities at a recent beef industry online event.

Initiated by the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework’s consultative committee, the webinar aimed to highlight current trends in farmer wellbeing and offer priorities for initiatives moving forward.

Dr Tim Driscoll, from the Outback Mental Health team at the Royal Flying Doctors Service, said access to Telehealth through Medicare had been a remarkable advancement for those in the bush.

“There is really nowhere now where you can’t get support and the wait times are not large,” he said.

“As a result of COVID, we are seeing how effective video conferencing is as a way of developing great therapy models that work well.

“What we have learnt is that people get the same benefit over a video conference as they do face-to-face.

“If you’re in a rural area, you now have access to a much wider pool of therapists – one of the big problems previously was those in the bush were stuck for options.”

Dr Driscoll did say, however, that farmers were still waiting far too long to seek help, for both mental and physical health issues.

And a key point, particularly with mental health, was not to give up if the first therapist wasn’t a good fit, he said.

“Think of it like a haircut – if you get a bad one it doesn’t mean you never have another haircut, you just find a new hairdresser,” he said.

“You want to make sure you are getting the right service.”

The best starting point was a GP, who could provide a suitable recommendation so it’s not ‘hit and miss’, he said.

Alternatively, Lifeline is a great service – 131114, it’s 24/7 and they can link you with other services in your area.

Pip Job, who runs a resilience program with the NSW Department of Primary Industries, said mental health was now far more a part of the conversation than ever – the community stigma had been well addressed.

“It we reflect back to the millennial drought, we have come so far in communicating the importance of looking after mental health,” she said.

“I’ve never heard more people, in particular men, talk about how they are feeling and reach out to mates to ask are they ok, and actively seek support.

“We’ve had some very challenging circumstances and compounding situations in the past couple of years so farming people are experiencing a lot of stress. But they are seeking help in how they can address that.

“People are able to articulate when they are feeling stressed and when they are burnt out – the language of mental health is excellent among our community at the moment.”

Building resilience

Resilience was the ability to cope with unexpected changes, Ms Job said.

“You can’t prevent difficult times and adverse events from happening – resilience is the ability to recover,” she said.

“What’s important is the lessons you learn – what will we change in the future, what will we continue with, how can we use this experience as a growth mechanism to mitigate risk in the future.”

Family units that have improved communication and decision making processes seem to express stronger levels of resilience, she said.

Agrisafe clinician with the National Centre for Farmer Health Morna Semmens said many farmers were struggling with home schooling routines.

And a key issue on the workplace safety front was the implications of more children on farms unsupervised, she said.

North Australian Pastoral Company general manager Stephen Moore said farms were a unique environment and producers faced the highest risk to life across the industry.

Producers were managing plant, chemicals, noise, dust, sun exposure, animals and, often, solitary or remote location work.

Studies had shown producers and lot feeders were above average in life satisfaction ratings, he said.

“Many farmers find the work they do rewarding and fulfilling. However, they also face many pressures that are out of their control such as drought, natural disasters and trade shocks,” Mr Moore said.

“When prolonged, these pressures, coupled with the isolation of rural life, can have a real impact on the mental health and wellbeing of farming families and this has been even more relevant in the midst of COVID.”

Dr Driscoll said good basic lifestyle factors were the pillars of mental health.

“Sleep, exercise, diet and social connection makes a huge difference,” he said.

“A lot of time what you’re doing with someone who is struggling is getting those things back on track.”

The story Lockdown’s upshot for bush health first appeared on Farm Online.