Combining agricultural production and care for persons with disabilities: a new role of agriculture and farm animals

Abstract

An increasing number of farmers in the Netherlands is combining commercial agricultural production with other functions such as landscape and nature conservation, and recreation.New and promising is the combination of agricultural production and providing care, occupational therapy and/or the development of occupational skills for persons with different kinds of disabilities.The number of farmers opting for this combination is increasing rapidly.Such sheltered agricultural workplaces, so-called sheltered farms, are good examples of the desired renewal of health care and agriculture.In a first -explorative study, farmers were interviewed to monitor the diversity of sheltered farms as these are developing.Farm animals were identified as one of the health-promoting factors on the farm.An interdisciplinary and interactive study was started to explore the possible contributions of farm animals to the quality of life of persons with disabilities.Although numerous studies have shown that animal contact can enhance the quality of life of persons with disabilities, the therapeutic potential of working with farm animals on the farm and the bottle-necks have generally been overlooked.The results of semi-structured interviews, field observations and independent discussion groups of farmers are presented and discussed, supplemented with data from the literature.The paper focuses on the diversity of farms combining agricultural production and social care, general characteristics of farm animals that are important for clients, differences in therapeutic qualities between different farm animals and activities, risks to animal welfare, and of zoonoses and accidents, consequences of the social care function for animal husbandry, the context of the farm and the role of the farmer and bottle-necks and potential to fully develop this new combination of functions.