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Social farming could play a part in addressing some of the acute staffing issues in Ireland’s intellectual disability and mental health service, according to discussions held at a conference run by Social Farming Ireland (SFI) at the Killashee Hotel, Co Kildare, on Wednesday.
SFI says a “potential crisis situation is arising for young people with disabilities who are due to leave secondary school soon”.
Many services to which such students might traditionally transition to to receive supports are saying that they may not have any places due to staffing issues, according to the organisation.
The social farming group suggests that farms could provide a “space and a place of support, growth and development for at least some of these young people in their own communities”.
Return on investment
“The potential return on investment for these young people and the thousands of other people who could experience amazing – sometimes life-changing – outcomes on social farms is substantial and ultimately cost effective.
“The magic of social farming is that it is opening up existing local rural resources of the farm and the farmer, making innovative use of these wonderful resources and their local community setting,” SFI said.
Social farming offers people who are socially, physically, mentally or intellectually disadvantaged the opportunity to spend time on a family farm in a healthy, supportive and inclusive environment.
‘Mutual benefit’
The SFI conference held in Kildare focused on the theme of mutual benefit for both those visiting social farms and the farmers themselves. Over 150 people attended the event.
SFI said: “For participants, the sheer variety of activities naturally available, the family environment which they can become part of, the realness of what happens on the farm: these are all of tremendous value and impossible to replicate in an institutional or clinical context.”
At the conference, Brendan Bright, who has spent time on Val and Una Cross's social farm in Kildare, spoke of the friendship he has developed with the farm owners and of how it was on their farm that he got the chance to fulfil his “bucket list” dream of getting back on a horse, something he had last done as a teenager.
You’d have some row with those calves if you didn’t get the mixture out to them fast enough!
Brendan is not from a farming or rural background, but he said the experience has helped bring him back to life, especially in the post-COVID period.
He described how the closest he had ever come to a cow or calf before was seeing them from a moving car, but that he found himself getting a “great kick” out of feeding them.
He told conference attendees that “you’d have some row with those calves if you didn’t get the mixture out to them fast enough!”
Minister of State with responsibility for public health, well being and national drugs strategy Frank Feighan officially opened the conference on Wednesday and spoke of his support for social farming both in his role as the minister responsible for Healthy Ireland (HI) and from his personal experience of spending time on social farms and seeing for himself their impact on people.
Funding
SFI said there was “strong agreement” at the conference that the support to date from the Department of Agriculture for social farming, the “huge demand” for the service from individuals and services and the increasing number of social farmers who are opening up their farms needs to be matched by “mainstream funding from within core health and social care budgets”.
“Currently, funding for social farming placements is fragmented both geographically and across support services and agencies, which means both that latent demand cannot be met adequately and that significant resources have to be continually deployed by multiple stakeholders to access funding from a very wide array of sources,” said SFI.
For further information on social farming, contact Social Farming Ireland national co-ordinator Helen Doherty at helen@ldco.ie or 071-964 1772 or visit the SFI website here.
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