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Coping With Financial Stress

By Don McCabe, Nebraska Farmer, October 1998

Identifying farmers and ranchers with disabilities as soon as possible and a stronger focus on the financial stresses of farming with a disability. Those are two areas Nebraska AgrAbility will emphasize in the coming months. A new USDA AgrAbility grant awarded this spring extends the state's program for four more years.

Becki Koehler, project director, says, "In our first three years, we found that farmers and their families not receiving support right away often experienced financial problems as they coped with the disability, " Koehler says. That's why she intends to build a stronger financial counseling and planning component into the program. "The disability affects the business, even when the person affected by disability is the spouse or a child," she points out. "The business is often affected by increased disability-related costs and a drop in available labor."

Families able to stay on the farm often need a business plan to qualify for credit or some disability incentive programs, she says. While AgrAbility wants to help keep on the farm those who desire to do so, Koehler and Renee Fitzke, AgrAbility rural rehabilitation assistant, realize that won't work in every case. "There are times when, financially, it won't work to continue farming," Koehler says. Others decide not to remain in agriculture for other than financial reasons. In those cases, AgrAbility will encourage the individual to work with Vocational Rehabilitation Services to explore other career options.

Koehler intends to expand outreach efforts to identify early-on farmers and ranchers needing assistance. One idea is to set up a network of 20 Nebraska hospitals, which would agree to tell farmers about AgrAbility. "We need to get producers connected with us as early as possible to start support services." Making AgrAbility known to farmers and ranchers experiencing chronic or age-related health problems, such as lung disorders, also is a goal. That's why the Rural Rehabilitation Partnership, an AgrAbility task force consisting of all the agencies partnering in the project, has added Dr. Susanna Von Essen, pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, as a member.

One success story is the Nebraska AgrAbility Peer Network that consists of 50 or more volunteer farmers or farm employees. "If we get a new referral," Koehler says, "that person may benefit from talking with someone who has a similar disability." The Peer Network "is a strong as any in the country," she adds. In the area of equipment, the Nebraska Assistive Technology Partnership, working with AgrAbility, will expand technology services available to farmers and ranchers with disabilities. And, the Natural Resources Conservation Service has funded a project with AgrAbility to help farmers and ranchers with disabilities carry out conservation practices.