News
Here you will find news and updates about events and other relevant items that you might find useful in your role as an accidental counsellor. These might be new resources, or sources of help and support, that you can refer farmers to, or that might be useful for you personally as an accidental counsellor.
Keep an eye on this page for news and updates!
Now available: Accidental Counsellors Project Report
In the summer of 2023, we embarked on the ‘accidental counsellors’ project with funding from the University of Exeter’s Open Innovation Platform. Our motivation for the project stemmed from the recognition that although farm professionals (e.g. vets, accountants, business advisors) regularly go above and beyond to support their clients with health and well-being, there is very little guidance or support out there for them.
As a first step, we spoke to a range of farm professionals to understand what it is like to support farmers, how it impacts their own well-being, and what kind of support would be useful for them. These conversations helped us to curate a collection of resources across four thematic areas: health and wellbeing, tricky conversations, support in a crisis, and training and events, which are now available on the Accidental Counsellors Resource Hub.
We would like to keep the Resource Hub current and relevant and for this we need the help of our community of accidental counsellors. If you know of a resource, be it a website, guidance, or training event, we would like to hear from you.
To learn more about the accidental counsellors project and our findings, you can download the full report here or click on the image.
Farmers’ Health Hubs Launching in Cornwall
Imagine If launches 1st Farming Health Hub session in Troon.
At the end of 2022 Imagine If Partnership took over the running of the Farming Health Hub (FHH) from Duchy Cornwall and after much work and planning in the background, including working in collaboration with University of Exeter to publish a report exploring, Ageing Farmers Health and Access to Healthcare in the Wake of Digital Service Provision, they are now ready to start running Health Hubs in the community, with the first FHH launching on the 12th of Feb 2024.
Under the management of Imagine If the FHH will build upon the recommendations within the report and work with organisations such as Mole Valley Farmers, Public Health and health partners, employers and rural communities to provide place-based advice, support, and guidance to farming communities in local venues such as livestock markets and pop- up venues rather than farmers and their families having to visit more formal environments.
Imagine If have chosen Troon Village Hall as their first location for a FHH. With so much activity around the company’s new Troon Health and Wellbeing Hub, as well as Troon’s central location in the county, it seemed like the ideal place to begin building a network of Farming Health Hubs across the county, which Imagine If hope will eventually cover a much wider range of locations, farmers and trying to reach the farming community across the whole of Cornwall.
The first FHH drop in is in Troon on the 12th of Feb from 6.30pm – 8.30pm, to capture farming families who are busy during the day. It will be an informal session where we welcome the farming community to join us to share their ideas and thoughts about what they want to see happen at the Health Hub and how these Hubs can best support them as a community.
Imagine If would love to see as many people from the farming community there as possible, so they can get a sense of what farmers want to see happen in their communities and what support is needed.
“Vicky Taylor, The Coordinator of Imagine If’s Health and Well-being Hub said:
“Our network of Cornish projects is growing fast and the way we deliver our services aligns well with the needs of the farming community. We want to see more health support and provision happen across Cornwall, not just in our hubs but for the farming community too. As an organisation, we also work alongside many key partners in the county to make sure our provision is well used, well connected and can maximise our reach and thus increase our positive impact on communities across the whole county.”
For more information about The Farming Health Hub please contact Vicky Taylor at vicky.taylor@imagineif.net or Nikki Kelly at nikki.kelly@imagineif.net.
