Those who work in agriculture face many stressors, including financial uncertainty, family and relationships issues, social isolation, disaster, accidental injury, and acute and chronic diseases, that can affect their mental health. While some mental health issues, such as the high rate of farmer suicides, have been discussed widely, other mental health stressors that affect agriculture workers in vulnerable rural communities have not been discussed as broadly. Research, strategies, and policies from across disciplines are needed 1) to identify the mental health issues that farmworkers, farm operators, farm owners and others in these communities face; 2) address the social, environmental and built-environment associations with mental health in rural communities; and 3) understand the inequities in farmworker/fishery/forestry community mental health (depressive or substance use disorder rates) and how we might close these gaps to encourage individual, family, and community-level resilience.

To address this need, the Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (SCCAHS) organized a State of the Science meeting, focusing on Stress and Resilience Among Agricultural Workers in Vulnerable Rural Communities. The State of the Science meeting included a poster session featuring research on Thursday evening, followed by Friday’s one-day meeting with a crosscutting slate of researchers from various fields to present current findings and to begin the process of developing future research collaborations on stress and resilience in vulnerable rural communities.

The post 2019 Stress and Resilience Among Agricultural Workers in Vulnerable Rural Communities first appeared on Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety.

On November 6 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Eastern, we invite you to join us for a SCCAHS webinar as Dr. Vasu Misra discusses future climate projections and the potential impacts that a changing climate could have on the agricultural industry, especially as it relates to heat-related illness and extreme weather events.

The post Heat-related Illness in a Changing Climate and Demography of Florida first appeared on Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety.

On October 9 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. we invite you to join us for the October 2019 SCCAHS webinar as Dr. Dunleavy shares the results from her SCCAHS pilot research project on the topic of chronic low back pain in the seafood industry.

The post Chronic low back pain in seafood workers: a pilot intervention study to identify modifiable work and movement solutions first appeared on Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety.

The second part of the webinar will be presented by Dr. Juan Luque as he shares research from his pilot study on farmworkers’ experience with HRI prevention strategies. One of the tools investigated for effectiveness in this study was the OSHA Heat Safety Tool mobile phone app. We hope you will be able to join us for this upcoming webinar as both speakers share information on the topic of HRI.

The post Heat-related Illness (HRI) in Agriculture: A two-part webinar providing research findings on a mobile app to monitor HRI and a compilation of educational research-based resources to help prevent HRI first appeared on Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety.