Keywords: Farmer health, occupational health, health behaviours, consultation skills, rural health inequalities
Justification:
Agriculture employs one in four people globally. It is rapidly changing and the lifestyle that farming families live. Mechanisation means farmers are moving less with chronic stress and mental ill health rising due to financial pressures. Recent statistics suggest farmers are not benefiting from improvements in mortality when compared with the general public. Like all rural dwellers this patient group are affected by wider well cited rural health inequalities. Despite these considerations, farmers may for many reasons delay seeking healthcare advice and it is recognised amongst clinicians that they may present with advanced disease. The environmental context of their livelihoods can also present complexities to creating acceptable shared management plans. This workshop will allow primary care professionals to share their experiences of serving agricultural communities.
Objective:
To explore the experiences of clinicians who have cared for farmers focussing on identify the barriers/facilitators guided by health behaviour theory and sharing best practices.
Organisation:
The workshop will be focus-group based with a note-taking observer and recording with appropriate consent and explanation. The workshop leads will guide the group on comparing and contrasting the barriers and facilitators that participants identify from across the varied landscapes in Europe.
Participation:
Participants will be grouped to achieve the best experience mix and geographical spread. There will be an icebreaker question followed by a 12-minute discussion using the 1-2-4-ALL method. A ranking method will then be used to put ideas in order of priority.
Expected outcomes:
Participants will share learning from each other to enhance understanding and skills in communicating with patients who are farmers. Together participants will also identify the factors they feel influence the health behaviours of farming patients. The workshop will allow wider dissemination of examples of innovative local community practice based initiatives which will aid the development of future collaborative research amongst rural primary healthcare professionals in Europe.
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