Patty Loew:
An update now on a rural Wisconsin initiative designed to bring healthcare to farmers. It's being described as a model for the nation and as a result, just won the prestigious Wisconsin Idea award. Since 2004 the non-profit Shawano County Rural Health Initiative has provided free preventive screening and other health-related services to 300 farm families. "In Wisconsin's" Art Hackett first introduced our viewers to the idea back in 2007 when he visited Shawano County.
Art Hackett:
Over the past three years, Rhonda Strebel has met a lot of her neighbors in Shawano county.
Rhonda Strebel:
We're heading out to Mike Rindt's house, he lives out on County C, a 100-year-old dairy.
Art Hackett:
She's the face of the Rural Health Initiative. An experiment which grew into an ongoing, self-sustaining program. Strebel grew up on a dairy farm and later worked as a chef and went on to earn a degree in sports medicine. Strebel transitioned back to the farm when she was hired as coordinator of the Shawano County Rural Health Initiative. The initiative grew out of a study of rural issues funded by a Thetacare, a medical group in the Fox Valley. The task force visited a number of farms.
Rhonda Strebel:
They started looking into hearing so much about farmers and their cost of health insurance and because of their cost of health insurance, they're not getting the preventive care and if they aren't getting preventive care they aren't catching the diseases as early and it is raising the cost. In three years we've seen 43% of our farmers in Shawano County, which is about 250 farm families.
Art Hackett:
The initiative is not a substitute for health insurance. In the case of the Rindt family, they have health insurance because Mike's wife has an off-the-farm job which provides coverage.
Art Hackett:
You're lucky.
Mike Rindt:
Yes, I am.
Art Hackett:
What are some of the typical challenges farmers face with healthcare?
Mike Rindt:
Just getting coverage that they can afford. Farming is a high-risk business anyway.
Rhonda Strebel:
Good morning. How is it going today?
Mike Rindt:
Good.
Art Hackett:
The Rural Health Initiative is a free-of-charge health screening program. A chance for farm families to learn what risks they're facing. That's why Mike Rindt is getting his finger stuck, cholesterol tested and body fat measured.
Rhonda Strebel:
18% body fat and your BMI is 23.
Art Hackett:
All while sitting around the kitchen table with his wife and two sons.
Art Hackett:
Earlier in your life, how often did you go in to get these things checked?
Mike Rindt:
I didn't go in at all when I was younger. Just in the last ten years of my life I'm starting to go in for things. I'm in my 50s, you start having things you go in for. Otherwise I never went in for anything.
Rhonda Strebel:
A lot of farmers don't have a need for many, many years. The only time they really go to the doctor is if they are going in through the emergency room. And so that's not a regular doctor. Yours is very good. Your HDL is 70. We can't do everything but what if we caught diabetes when it's in the pre-diabetes stage? What if we caught cholesterol when it is borderline? By doing these screenings we're finding these things sooner.
Rhonda Strebel:
The number was 82.
Ron Hillman:
I've been involved with four other initiatives that were similar in nature.
Art Hackett:
Ron Hillman is president of the Mid-County Co-op in Shawano and part of the original study group.
Ron Hillman:
None of them ever really worked. The single biggest factor that's different here, this is the first time we took the person or the program to the farm.
Rhonda Strebel:
The veterinarian goes there. We don't bring our cows in. The milk hauler comes to them. The feed, fuel, tires, everything gets delivered to the farm but yet for healthcare we're waiting for the farmers to come to us. Overall you're feeling pretty good
Mike Rindt:
Other than back trouble. Otherwise I'm healthy.
Rhonda Strebel:
You're milking with a pipeline, right?
Art Hackett:
It's a type of milking system found in conventional dairy barns. The setup is known for taking a toll on farmer's backs and knees. Strebel, who grew up on a dairy farm, suggested Mike Rindt's son, Reagan, consider updating the barn with a milk-while-standing system known as a parlor.
Rhonda Strebel:
You're seeing your dad go through it.
Mike Rindt:
Most people in the health industry don't understand the farm industry. Somebody to cover both bases. It is valuable to have that knowledge. It's great.
Rhonda Strebel:
Growing up we had a beautiful farm. There was my parents and three girls. We worked the farm with them. We had all registered Holsteins, two herds, over 100 head that we milked daily. They grew the farm in the 70s and 80s. We now think that there was probably stray voltage in the feeder barn. At the time we didn't know what was happening. But calves were being born still born. We weren't getting our calves, the vet was out constantly doing surgeries. We ended up losing the whole farm. Your numbers are looking like you may have a little bit toward your mom's disposition of cholesterol. Even though you're young and think oh, I don't have to worry about that, you know, I'm lean and I exercise a lot, you are still going to have to watch what you eat.
Art Hackett:
20 years after Strebel's own family's farm failed, she is working with today's farmers offering advice on wellness.
Rhonda Strebel:
One of the things in here about skin cancer. What we've found is farmers so often wear baseball hats. They're great for protection from the bill in the front but so many farmers get skin cancer on their ears and back of the neck.
Art Hackett:
But more important, she's on the farms to listen and stay in touch.
Rhonda Strebel:
I wish there would have been somebody there for my father and my family. I feel like here I am years later, yes, I'm that person now. Yeah. Yeah.
Patty Loew:
The Shawano Rural Health Initiative also serves the Amish community. Most Amish farms don't have electricity so medical experts bring along a generator to power test equipment. Hard economic times have some farmers putting off work until next spring and that has some environmentalists worried. During the fall some farm operations hire professionals to spread manure onto fields. This year because of low milk prices fewer farmers are spending the money to empty manure pits. That increases the chance of spills and runoff into nearby lakes and streams. The DNR and the conservation board have launched new initiatives reminding farmers what steps they must take to manage and dispose of manure.
