Missouri

March 25, Missouri AgrAbility exhibited during the 99th Annual Jefferson County Agricultural Conference in Hillsboro, Missouri. Attendees tried out ergonomic small hand tools and picked up AgrAbility education-based resources, farm safety booklets, and prevention of secondary injury materials. Mary Bolling with Lincoln University Missouri Innovative Small Farmers' Outreach Program and Missouri AgrAbility co-PI presented "This and That - Ergonomics to Protect Yourself on the Farm," and demonstrated short- and long-handled ergonomic hand tools.

Missouri AgrAbility sent 12 delegates to the 2023 AgrAbility National Training Workshop in Spokane, Washington. Participants included the University of Missouri Extension, 4-H, Lincoln University Missouri Innovative Small Farmers' Outreach Program (ISFOP), Brain Injury Association of Missouri, a Missouri AgrAbility client farmer, and four veteran farmers. Missouri AgrAbility also exhibited, presented during the poster session, and provided four conference breakout sessions.

Submitted by: Willard Downs, Elizabeth Picking, Susan Jaster, David Middleton, and Karen Funkenbusch

Missouri AgrAbility partnered with the Brain Injury Association of Missouri (BIA-MO) for the Brain Injury Fact of the Day social media campaign during March 2023, which is Brain Injury Awareness Month. A unique brain injury-related fact was posted each day on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as agriculture, health, veteran, and other websites. Of these social media posts, three were videos featuring Missouri AgrAbility clients through the cooperation of Karen Funkenbusch and Tevin Uthlaut with Missouri AgrAbility, and Maureen Cunningham and Andrew Edmonston with the Brain Injury Association of Missouri. Immediate results of the Facebook posts were 5,608 engagements. Nearly 24,000 people were reached through Facebook, which is a 27 percent increase from the 2022 Brain Injury Fact of the Day social media campaign.

Dr. Brent Masel, medical director for the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), was a featured speaker for the "Brain Injury: Chronic Health Condition, Management and Prevention" session at the AgrAbility NTW. Attendees learned that brain injury is not an event or the final outcome, but rather it is the beginning of a disease process. Discussion included that no brain injury is a static process, regardless of whether it is classified as a mild, moderate, or severe brain injury or concussion. There was also information about brain injury being disease causative or accelerative. Research shared by Dr. Masel showed the correlation between brain injury and health conditions of post-traumatic epilepsy, stroke, brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, and sleep disturbances. He also provided extensive information on the relationship between brain injury and psychosis, depression, mania, PTSD, aggression, and Alzheimer's-type dementia. Karen Funkenbusch, PI for Missouri AgrAbility, shared examples of successful AgrAbility clients and encouraged AgrAbility staff to be prepared to recognize unreported or diagnosed brain injuries that may affect other health conditions of the farmers.

Submitted by: Maureen Cunningham