Reaching the difficult audience: an experiment to provide occupational health services to farmers and ranchers in Colorado, U.S.A.

From its inception in the late 1970s, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation funded Workplace Health in Agriculture Program at Colorado State University underwent numerous evolutions as the needs of the agricultural community were identified. Direct health and safety consultation with agribusiness met with limited success due to the cost of providing services over a wide geographic area and a general unwillingness within this group of employers to involve themselves with "OSHA"-type regulations. Therefore, the program changed from promotion of, and providing health and safety consultation upon request, to education of specific target groups within the agricultural community supplemented by consultation services when needs were identified. Target groups for educational services included rural health care providers, vocational-agriculture students and teachers, farm/ranch clubs and groups (with special emphasis on farm wives groups), and rural emergency services. These groups became the promoters of health and safety within the agriculture community, which resulted in a direct, positive impact on requests for, and interest in health and safety services provided by the program.