Archives

Emergency Ready- Hazardous Materials Down on the Farm: Playbook of Strategies for Farm and Ranch Families

June 13, 2024 | Author: Ansley Fey | Categories:

Hazardous materials lurk around many corners of farm shops, buildings, and barns. The health impacts of organic and inorganic exposures can be mild to devastating. Be prepared and be ready to handle identifiable and nonidentifiable materials during everyday farm and ranch work as well as during emergencies. In this training, we will discuss action steps, strategies, and resources to protect individuals working and living on the ranch and farm.

Animal Depopulation Resiliency Check-in Tool

June 13, 2024 | Author: Ansley Fey | Categories:

Animal depopulation is associated with distressing psychological impacts on people. These impacts affect many stakeholders including veterinarians, producers, public health officials, and others who make decisions about and carry out depopulation. The Animal Depopulation Resiliency Check-in Tool (ADRCT) is a five-question public health protocol for stakeholders who are preparing for, participating in, and recovering from animal depopulation.

Skid Loader Safety

June 4, 2024 | Author: Ansley Fey | Categories:

Skid loaders are useful and versatile machines in the hands of appropriate operators. To utilize them to their utmost, we must understand there is inherent risk in the operation of the machine. This class will talk over some of the basics of skid loader operation including why there should be no passengers, proper transport, safety features, and blind spots.

Combating Heat and Cold Stress for Forestry Workers

May 17, 2024 | Author: Ansley Fey | Categories:

Forestry workers may be subject to extreme heat and cold. Working outdoors makes people more likely to become dehydrated and experience heat-related illness or heat stress. High temperatures reduce work capacity and may lead to heat stress and dehydration. Although exposure to heat stress is preventable, thousands become sick from occupational heat exposure every year, and some cases are fatal.  Similarly, cold weather can reduce dexterity, blood flow, muscle strength, and balance. Hypothermia, frostbite, trench foot, and chilblains are all illnesses and injuries caused by cold stress. However, forestry workers can avoid heat-related illness and cold stress with proper information and preventative action. This presentation will explore both weather-related conditions and their impact on outdoor workers.

Using a Total Worker Health/Total Farmer Health Approach to Assessing Ag Worker Wellbeing

May 16, 2024 | Author: Ansley Fey | Categories:

In the San Luis Valley, Colorado – community leaders have voiced increasing concern for the behavioral health of workers in the agriculture industry. Using Total Worker Health® and Total Farmer Health® frameworks, we developed an interactive worker wellbeing assessment. Approximately 118 participants responded to our survey with a completion rate adequate for analysis. This presentation will describe worker wellbeing through measures of job satisfaction, coworker support, work affect, work fatigue, overall health status, chronic health conditions, individual stress, general mental health status, substance use, work injury, social support, anxiety, and depression.

Hearing Loss Prevention for Forest Workers

March 6, 2024 | Author: Ansley Fey | Categories:

Hearing loss is common, especially among workers who are exposed to hazardous noise where they work. Forestry and logging are among the top industry sectors for worker exposure to hazardousRead More

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Healing Conversations: Healing Resources for Individuals Impacted by Suicide Loss

January 19, 2024 | Author: Ansley Fey | Categories:

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) provides resources and connections for individuals and communities regarding suicide prevention and postvention. The aftermath of a suicide can be lonely and isolating for those left behind. This special webinar will focus on AFSP’s Healing Conversations, a no-cost program for people impacted by suicide loss. Learn how to access the program for yourself or someone you know struggling with suicide loss.

Importance of Foot Health in Agriculture

November 16, 2023 | Author: Stacey Jenkins | Categories:
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The Healing Capacity of Honey Bees: Veterans Using Beekeeping as a Modality to Achieve Positive Mental Health Outcomes

November 16, 2023 | Author: Stacey Jenkins | Categories:

Veterans deal with a whole host of disabilities, traumas, and transitional issues following military service. Agriculture can serve as a solution to many veteran issues through professional training to support career goals and therapeutic activities to support overall wellness of the veteran and their families. Crosscutting programs like Heroes to Hives seek to address these multifaceted needs through professional training in beekeeping and transpersonal wellness practices within the course that seek to utilize bees and the interaction with them as modalities for positive health outcomes. In this session, we will discuss how Heroes to Hives delivers wellness opportunities and practices to their students.

Video.

Protecting Your Brain from Stress

November 16, 2023 | Author: Stacey Jenkins | Categories:

It’s no surprise that farmers’ behavioral health is positively correlated with crop production and healthy animals. But what happens when markets swing, there’s a drought, feed prices go sky-high, and you can’t find good employees? Stress. It’s the body’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. Stress creates chemical reactions in our bodies, and cortisol is released, our blood thickens, our blood pressure increases, and more. Chronic stress can lead to your brain shrinking from the constant flow of cortisol. This clearly illustrates why we need to find ways to release cortisol to protect our brain. Science shows that ongoing stress can negatively impact: your brain size and how it functions, the way your children and grandchildren are genetically equipped to handle stressors, and your susceptibility to depression or Alzheimer’s. The solutions are not complicated but are often overlooked. Michele helps you understand tools like rest, exercise, nutrition, and the value of including stress management as a part of their business.

Spanish Title: Protege tu cerebro del estrés

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Confined Spaces on Dairy Farms

November 16, 2023 | Author: Stacey Jenkins | Categories:

Confined spaces such as tanks and storage bins are recognized workplace hazards on agricultural production settings. Manure storage facilities are often not recognized as confined spaces, especially on dairy farms.Read More

Chainsaw Safety Training

October 12, 2023 | Author: Ansley Fey | Categories:

The Chainsaw Safety training program is intended for workers and managers in the agricultural and forestry industries.  The major focus of the program is on the identification of and the safe operation of chainsaws.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 36,000 people are injured by chainsaws annually.

Stress Control Strategies for the Forestry and Timber Workforce

October 12, 2023 | Author: Ansley Fey | Categories:

Stress can directly impact safety. Whether managing forestry wildfires or working long strenuous days harvesting and hauling timber, the forestry and logging workforce face unique situations that can predispose stress and challenges to mental well-being. The agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting (AgFF) industries has one of highest percentages of deaths by suicide. Key factors contributing to despair and distress include financial losses, chronic illness or pain, a sense of work-life imbalance, and lack of mental health support. This session will explore the topic with a review of specific risk factors, and discuss ways to support this workforce in an unpredictable environment. Read More

Video.

ATV Safety

September 18, 2023 | Author: Laura Siegel | Categories:

ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) are one of the most common and dangerous pieces of equipment on today’s farm. An average of 500 persons die and another 100,000 are seriously injured each year while operating ATVs. Nearly 60% of the fatalities occur in agriculture. This course teaches how to recognize, evaluate, and control common hazards when operating an ATV on the farm.

Spanish Title: Seguridad en ATV (Vehículos Todo Terreno)

Best Practices in the Detection and Monitoring of Pesticide Exposure

June 21, 2023 | Author: Stacey Jenkins | Categories:

Farmers and agricultural workers are routinely exposed to a wide variety of chemicals. Toxicity Category I and II organophosphates (OPs) and N-methyl carbamates are cholinesterase-inhibiting insecticides commonly used in agriculture to kill insects or prevent them from damaging or destroying crops. Over-exposure to these chemicals results in the inhibition of the enzyme cholinesterase (ChE) which is utilized in the body’s conducting tissue, such as nerve and muscle motor sensory fibers. Acute toxic effects can include confusion, headache, and even loss of consciousness. Severe inhibition of ChE in the body can result in muscle paralysis, respiratory failure, seizures, coma, and death. Currently, there is no practice standard or national medical surveillance program for cholinesterase monitoring.

Musculoskeletal and Ergonomic Safety for Forest Workers

June 1, 2023 | Author: Stacey Jenkins | Categories:

Forest workers face unique ergonomic challenges due to their exposure to extreme environmental conditions, heavy workload, and dangerous tools and machines. The forest sector has one of the highest rates of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs), almost 100 times higher than the industrial targets the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) set. This program is intended to help forest workers identify ergonomic issues leading to musculoskeletal injuries and discover resources to aid in injury treatment and prevention.

A Bird’s Eye View of Avian Influenza

April 20, 2023 | Author: Stacey Jenkins | Categories:

Summary: In this short webinar, you will learn about the basics of avian influenza, the HPAI outbreak in 2022, how outbreak control works, and what people should do if theyRead More

Preventing Workplace Violence for Forestry Workers

April 20, 2023 | Author: Stacey Jenkins | Categories:

Forestry and logging workers are exposed to a range of biological hazards, extreme weather, accidents, and – especially for women– assault. Workplace violence is violence or the threat of violence against workers. This training will review the many forms of workplace violence among co-workers, including sexual harassment. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) states that “each employer shall furnish to each of his employees’ employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.” In this presentation, AgriSafe will focus on educating forestry employees and their employers on reporting violent incidents to authorities, informing employees of their legal rights, and safe work practices.

Video.

Culture is Our Wellness (La Cultura Cura)

January 4, 2023 | Author: Sarah Dauterive | Categories:

This webinar introduces the practice of Curanderismo as an ethno-indigenous form of health and healing originating in Mesoamerica and practiced among many Latinx communities. The presenters will discuss their work with traditional medicine and present the specializations of Curanderismo, which can be used by people of all cultural backgrounds and various health providers with their patients. The presenters will begin with a brief opening ceremony, provide their personal narratives of traditional healing, a historical grounding of Curanderismo, present the specializations of the traditional medicine, and discuss current efforts to integrate traditional and allopathic medicine.