Other Disability and Agricultural-related questions
I am legally blind and need some ideas on how to navigate from one place to another on my ranch and to locate gates, corrals and pastures.
Some ideas that can help are:
- Different texture ropes strung between buildings with different numbers of knots tied at important locations.
- Different texture gravel and stone paths to different locations.
- A contrast of lighting brightness or colors.
- A talking Trekker GPS can be programmed with destination points and routes around the ranch. Contact Humanware at www.humanware.com or phone at 800-722-3393.
- High visibility tape or paint to mark paths, buildings and other locations.
- One farmer reported using different sounding wind chimes to identify key sites around his farm.
- Another farmer used radios set to different stations in his garage, shop and barn to help give him his bearings.
- Breaking New Ground Resource Center at Purdue University has an entry in its Plowshares Technical Reports series that you might find beneficial—Farming with a Visual Impairment (Plowshares #13).
- The "Toolbox," is a CD-ROM and on-line catalog of commercial and farmer-modified equipment and assistive devices for farming with a disability. One of the "Toolbox" fact sheets is on outdoor navigation aids for the visually impaired. Your county Extension office and local high school agricultural education teacher should have a copy of the CD to view (perhaps borrow), or you can access it (in pdf format) at www.bngtoolbox.info.
I have emphysema and really have problems in the winter to chop ice with an axe in the river to provide water for my cattle. Do you know any inexpensive alternatives?
You could use a windmill to pump water up from the river to a watering station. By preventing the cattle direct access to the waterway, you can also avoid stream bank erosion and pollution problems. Since the problem involves freezing weather, any approach will need a way to keep the water flowing continually to avoid freezing. Water could be diverted from upstream and run to a watering station continually and the overflow returned to the stream on the downhill side.
My relative is a farmer with a disability and is having financial and family problems. He often gets angry and other times seems very depressed. I am worried he will hurt someone or himself. What can I do to help?
It is important to get him help soon, especially with the possibility of hurting someone or himself. If you think there is immediate danger, you should call 911 and explain the situation. There is hope when he receives treatment. Many new antidepressants work well, but take a few weeks to take effect. However, quick acting anti-anxiety medications can often help until the antidepressants are fully working. If there is no immediate danger, a general practitioner or urgent care doctor can usually see a patient soon to start medications if they are told it is somewhat of an emergency. In cases like this it is always recommended to ask the person if he has thought about suicide and take all guns out of the house if there is a risk. You could also suggest for him to call the United States National Suicide and Crisis Hotlines, 800-SUICIDE and 800-273-TALK, or other crisis hotlines in your local area.
It is important to get him help soon, especially with the possibility of hurting someone or himself. If you think there is immediate danger, you should call 911 and explain the situation. There is hope when he receives treatment. Many new antidepressants work well, but take a few weeks to take effect. However, quick acting anti-anxiety medications can often help until the antidepressants are fully working. If there is no immediate danger, a general practitioner or urgent care doctor can usually see a patient soon to start medications if they are told it is somewhat of an emergency. In cases like this it is always recommended to ask the person if he has thought about suicide and take all guns out of the house if there is a risk. You could also suggest for him to call the United States National Suicide and Crisis Hotlines, 800-SUICIDE and 800-273-TALK, or other crisis hotlines in your local area.
If there is no immediate danger, it would be best for him to make an appointment with his primary care doctor that he knows and trusts. You may need to follow up and keep reminding him to make an appointment or make it for him. Someone needs to participate with the doctor and your relative's discussion during his appointment to make sure that your relative tells the doctor his entire situation because it is often very difficult for a self reliant farmer to open up and talk about his problems. If no one can accompany your relative to the doctor, you need to make a list of things that he should visit the doctor about so the doctor can get the complete story needed to prescribe the best treatment. The list should include his stressors causing depression and anger, e.g., family and friend estrangement, caring for an elderly relative, farming with a disability, divorce, living alone, crop failure, financial instability, etc. Give that list to your relative to take to the doctor with him. Then make sure he takes the list to the doctor for discussion. Also if he goes alone, try to find out the doctor's name and call his office before the visit and explain the situation so the doctor will know to ask questions in case your relative can't bring himself to tell about his depression and anger. Then be sure to call your relative, ask him how the doctor visit went, and see if you can determine if he discussed all of the items on your list. The doctor hopefully would refer him to a counselor and possibly with a psychiatrist. If not, then you could pursue finding a counselor. Keep in mind if he has major depression, it can be very difficult if not impossible for him to do anything to help himself so he must have help from a caring relative or friend to begin recovery.
To find specialized treatment from psychiatrists who can prescribe drugs and from psychologists or therapists who use talk therapy to teach how to cope with adversity, you might want to check out the following Web sites.
• therapists.psychologytoday.com/ppc/prof_search.php?iorb=4764
• www.networktherapy.com/directory/find_therapist.asp
• therapists.americanmentalhealth.com/therapistlocator.pagel
Other good places to find general information and advice are the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI (find your closest NAMI at www.nami.org), Mental Health America (at www.nmha.org), or the local Community Mental Health Center (every community in the U.S. has a center and you can find it by calling a local hospital social services department or a welfare office). The center can offer medical treatment on a sliding scale depending upon the financial status of the patient.