Missouri

Karen Funkenbusch from Missouri AgrAbility and Tricia Barrett, MU Extension farm business specialist, co-developed and co-facilitated a four-hour in-service training with USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) state representatives. Participants included AgrAbility farmers and ranchers, veteran farmers and ranchers, MU Extension farm business specialists, Innovative Small Farmers Outreach, AgrAbility program outreach workers Susan Jaster and David Middleton at Lincoln University Cooperative Extension, and USDA FSA state and county level personnel. Participants learned about USDA FSA Programs: Farm Service Agency, farm loans, rural development, and Natural Resources Conservation Service, and received Missouri AgrAbility, MU Extension, and USDA FSA informational packets. Through this initiative, Extension specialists from the across the state are better prepared to assist AgrAbility farmers and ranchers with one-on-one technical assistance as well as sharing USDA Program resources and making referrals to their local offices.

Karen Funkenbusch, director/PI, Missouri AgrAbility, presented, "How to work with AgrAbility farmers and ranchers with disabilities" during the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Civil Rights Advisory Committee (SCRAC) training. Karen shared ways in which NRCS civil rights advisory committee members and staff from Missouri AgrAbility can work together to provide direct services, referrals, and one-on-one technical assistance to AgrAbility clients, the socially disadvantaged, those with limited resources, minorities, women, and military veteran farmers and ranchers.

Missouri AgrAbility co-sponsored the MU Extension 2018 Missouri Agriculture Extension Professions (MAEP) two-day in-service education (ISE) "Explore Missouri." This year's two-day agriculture tour had stops in Moniteau, Morgan, and Camden counties. On the first day attendees toured Burgers' Smokehouse in California with a "behind the scenes" of the plant to see how they process, bag, cure, and age hams using age-old principles and recipes passed down from the founder's mother in 1927. Next, the group visited Central Missouri Produce Auction in Fortuna, and Morgan County Seeds in Barnett; both companies owned and operated by the local Mennonites. The group also learned how they could get involved with the AgrAbility program presented by Karen Funkenbusch and Agroforestry Allen Project by Dusty Walters. Day one ISE ended with tours and dinner at the Golden Rock Winery. Day two, tours included Ameren's Bagnell Dam at Lake of the Ozarks and Ha Ha Tonka State Park.

Missouri AgrAbility staff members and David Middleton, level II MO AgrAbility onsite assessor, with assistance from Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) and Rehabilitation Services for Blind (RSB) case managers, facilitated four rehab tech/engineering consults combined with making successful referrals to USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and MO Assistive Technology Program to access technical services and for follow-up assistance.

Submitted by Karen Funkenbusch, David Middleton, and Willard Downs

Brain Injury Association of Missouri volunteers shared safety tips for rural living and farming at the 12th Annual Public Health and Safety Fair in Independence, Missouri, on Saturday, July 21, 2018. Thousands of children and adults learned about preventing brain injury by wearing a helmet while horseback riding for recreation or work. Information about adaptive equipment and farming with a disability were also on display at the Missouri AgrAbility Project - Brain Injury Association exhibit.

Submitted by Maureen Cunningham

University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy, a Missouri AgrAbility collaborator, included two student pharmacists in AgrAbility client outreach activities throughout July. Doctoral pharmacy students Shannon Jones and Ian Thacker, and Omoshola Kehinde, MPH intern, along with preceptor Kelly Cochran, PharmD, BCPS, provided two Pharm to Farm on-site farmstead medication assessments. Three pharmacies were visited in coordination with farmstead visits and promotional materials for Missouri AgrAbility Project, Pharm to Farm, and a CS-CASH funded study being conducted involving farmer's injuries in relation to their medication use were distributed and discussed. Services provided during farmstead visits included free point-of-care health screenings, disease state education, AgriSafe Health Risk Assessments, and comprehensive medication review. Health screenings provided were valued at over $300 for each farm family. Farmers were advised on safe medication practices and provided with tips for falls prevention, provided community support resources, and were advised on management of medication side effects to avoid injury. One farmer was referred to a free dental event that is held within a nearby community since they did not have any dental insurance. Medication copay assistance resources were provided for specialty therapies that cost nearly $80,000/year.

Free point-of-care health screenings, AgriSafe Health Risk Assessments, and rural wellness education were provided to 13 patrons of the Audrain County 4-H Fair in Mexico, Missouri, at a value of $650, as well as four attendees of the University of Missouri Agroforestry Academy at a value of $200. Pharm to Farm and AgrAbility flyers were shared with participants in both venues.

Pictured here are Omoshola (right), Shannon (middle), and Ian (left) after a farmstead medication assessment. Shannon and Ian share their background and why becoming pharmacists in rural communities is important to them:

• Shannon Jones, PharmD candidate 2019, comes from the small, rural town of Hurley, located in southwest Missouri. She grew up in this community with strong values and acknowledgment of the hard work put into agriculture each day. She enjoyed being involved in FFA in high school and volunteering at the Saddle Club in Hurley, MO. In May 2018 she will graduate from University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy, from the Springfield location as a pharmacist. She believes that members of rural communities have strong bonds and try to help each other out when times get hard. Her future goals include being able to return to a rural community to help serve those who have already enriched her life so much, pursuing residency training after graduation for further education, and continuing to learn and grow as a pharmacist to be a resource for others in need.
• Ian Thacker, PharmD candidate 2019, has lived his entire life in the Midwest. Born in the small town of Burlington, Iowa, where agriculture is prevalent, and spending the last 17 years in Columbia, Missouri. While Columbia is not what most people would describe as a rural community, there is a very strong small-town culture there, as citizens from the surrounding counties use Columbia as a hub for education, trade, and social activities. Growing up immersed in a mixture of city and country life, he has always been drawn away from the city and felt more at home where you can look up and actually see the stars. Since he did not have the opportunity to spend much time on the farm as a child, he decided that a great way to learn more about and connect with people in the rural community would be to join the Pharm to Farm program. He plans to graduate from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy's Columbia location with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and put that degree to use in a rural area, working in a community pharmacy where he can develop close relationships with his patients.

Submitted by Kelly Cochran