Safety of Older Farmers
Farmsafe WA Alliance and the
Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety (ACAHS) have
been working on resources for older farmers - providing ideas on
how other farmers have dealt with working 'smarter, not harder' on
the farm. The Older Farmers program, run by the ACAHS, formed part
of the Farm Injury Prevention Project which was funded by the
Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing over a three year
period. The Older Farmer program had been initiated as a result of
statistics which indicate that the rate of injury and death of
farmers over the age of 55 years was greater than those of
younger farmers.
Planning saw workshops for Older
Farmers being held in most states of Australia with a good cross
section of agricultural production represented. The
objective of the workshops was to seek the farmers experience in
defining the specific tasks on farm that which are more
difficult for them to achieve, then collectively use the
farmers considerable experience to find ways to make the work
easier.
The final outcome of the workshops
and culmination of the farmers input isa practical resource "The
Great Idea Bank" which covers - identification of tasks that are
harder to do, practical ways to do the job easier and information
on the physical changes experienced as we age, as well as what we
can do to maintain our health and wellbeing.
The second phase of this program
will see the implementation of workshops being hosted by community
groups to evaluate and promote the use of the resource more
broadly. To obtain more information, please contact us.
The Preventing Falls for Older Farmers resource
has recently been released by AgHealth Australia (booklet
2.14Mb).
Lyn Fragar delivering an
Active Ageing - Farming Over 55 workshop.
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Farmsafe WA Alliance Founded seventeen years
ago with the voluntary work of farmers and enthusiasm of other
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