T.
Scharf, C.M.
Hennessy, L.J.
Chapman, G.
A. Olson, D.E.
Baker and R. James
NIOSH Education and Information Division
Rural
hotlines and other social services in farming communities
have become increasingly important since the farm crisis of
the mid-1980s. These agencies are in an excellent position
to collect information regarding current needs and emerging
problems in rural communities. Additionally, these agencies
have been engaged in a wide variety of activities and services
related to disaster relief, which essentially constitute,
or have the potential to constitute, community interventions.
However, there has been little effort to systematically gather
and evaluate information about the types and outcomes of these
social service activities. This paper utilizes the example
of call logs from a rural hotline to illustrate the surveillance
potential in the information collected, and the potential
usefulness of this information in formulating interventions
in rural communities.
Recently,
researchers at NIOSH had the opportunity to code four years
of data from the Wisconsin Farmers Assistance Program Hotline
in Madison, Wisconsin. Open-ended, handwritten notes from
the call logs were coded into categories of farm family life
events. These data are presented and discussed briefly. Additionally,
discussion will focus on the potential usefulness of hotlines,
and other data collected by rural social service agencies,
in providing information on changing trends in rural community
problems and service needs to target interventions.
Disclaimer
and Reproduction Information: Information in NASD does not
represent NIOSH policy. Information included in NASD appears
by permission of the author and/or copyright holder. More
NASD Review: 04/2002
This
research abstract was extracted from a portion of the proceedings
of "Agricultural Safety and Health: Detection, Prevention
and Intervention," a conference presented by the Ohio State
University and the Ohio Department of Health, sponsored by
the Centers for Disease Control/National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health.
T.
Scharf, NIOSH, Cincinnati, OH; C.M. Hennessy, Fed. Office
of Rural Health Policy, Washington, DC, L.J. Chapman, Univ.
of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; G. A. Olson, Iowa State Univ. Extension,
Mt. Pleasant, IA; D.E. Baker, Univ. of Missouri, Columbia,
MO; R. James, Wisconsin Farmers Assistance Program Hotline,
State of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
|