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Agricultural injuries remain a major concern in North America, with a fatal injury rate of 19.5 deaths per 100,000 workers in the United States. Numerous research efforts have sought to compile and analyze records of agricultural-related injuries and fatalities at a national level, utilizing resources, ranging from newspaper clippings and hospital records to Emergency Medical System (EMS) data, death certifications, surveys, and other multiple sources. Despite these extensive efforts, a comprehensive understanding of injury trends over extended time periods and across diverse types of data sources remains elusive, primarily due to the duration of data collection and the focus on specific subsets. This systematic review, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, consolidates and analyzes agricultural injury surveillance data from 48 eligible papers published between 1985 and 2022 to offer a holistic understanding of trends and challenges. These papers, reporting an average of 25,000 injuries each, were analyzed by database source type, injury severity, nature of injury, body part, source of injury, event/exposure, and age. One key finding is that the top source of injury or event/exposure depends on the chosen surveillance system and injury severity, underscoring the need of diverse data sources for a nuanced understanding of agricultural injuries. This study provides policymakers, researchers, and practitioners with crucial insights to bolster the development and analysis of surveillance systems in agricultural safety. The overarching aim is to address the pressing issue of agricultural injuries, contributing to a safer work environment and ultimately enhancing the overall well-being of individuals engaged in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Weather is a key source of marine risk, but relationships between fishing activity, safety, and weather remain poorly understood. Critically, the fit between available marine forecast products, fish harvesters' needs, and harvester's decision-making processes has not been rigorously assessed. This paper addresses these gaps by documenting a) weather-related decision-making by harvesters, and its relationship to forecasts across multiple regions and fisheries on Canada's East coast (Newfoundland) and b) the dynamics of forecast production priorities. Methods: A multi-disciplinary, community-engaged research approach, conducted in partnership with the Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Harvesting Safety Association (NL-FHSA). Data consist of semi-structured interviews with fish harvesters and weather forecasters, focused on marine forecast production and use. Results: Results emphasize that there is a subjective "art" to both production and use of marine forecasts. Forecasters and harvesters share several common values regarding forecasts, but different emphases: forecasters favor some combination of accuracy, consistency, and utility, while harvesters are largely concerned with utility. Finally, harvesters' decision-making is based on nuanced and contextual interpretations of a few key hazards (winds and, to a lesser extent, waves). Conclusion: This community-engaged research has triggered experimentation with forecasts tailored to fisheries utility within Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). It lays the groundwork for ongoing, mutually beneficial dialogue between forecasters and harvesters, engaging harvesters with the forecasting process while familiarizing forecasters with harvester's decision-making processes. Ongoing industry partnerships (NL-FHSA) continue to sustain momentum from this study towards further enhancing the utility of future marine forecasts for small-scale harvesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aging of the population, especially in Canadian rural areas, providing home care services will be particularly challenging as care is needed by increasingly vulnerable rural older adults in increasingly vulnerable rural settings with fewer services, supports, and caregivers. The purpose of this paper is to present examples of the federal (e.g., First Nations and Inuit Home and Community Care) and provincial (e.g., Ontario's Community Care Access Centres) home care policy context in which Canadian home care is provided, to identify the challenges faced by home care providers in meeting the needs of rural residents, and to offer solutions to these challenges. The most pressing challenges in aging rural settings are to ensure effective access to quality health care services and to address the shortage of home care providers, especially registered nurses. Provincial and federal home care models would be enhanced by an integrative model of continuing care and a national home care framework that would address the broader funding and human resource issues. Other uniquely rural recruitment and retention strategies are suggested such as maximizing the “fit” between the home care provider's attributes and the needs and expectations of the rural community. Sufficient public funding and resources for rural and remote home care programs are needed to develop and implement (1) the expanded role of case managers; (2) health care teams that include both professionals and paraprofessionals; (3) standardized assessment tools and reporting systems; (4) innovative use and training in the use of technology; and (5) partnerships that optimize resources and build support networks for rural home care providers, clients, and family and friend caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the key demographic, employment, income, and social capital features of rural Canada. Rural populations have different characteristics that are typically a direct result of “rurality”—i.e., long distances and low population density. Jobs that require a high-density population (such as a professional hockey player) are not available to individuals who live at a distance from a metro center. Rural Canada may have an agricultural landscape (or a forestry or mining landscape) but the vast majority of rural workers do not work in primary sectors. Manufacturing employment is larger. Rural Canada is competitive in manufacturing—rural areas are gaining a larger share of Canada's manufacturing workforce. Rural incomes are lower, on average. But lower living costs mean that the rural incidence of low incomes is similar to urban. In rural communities, the existence of social networks does not always imply that these networks are used. Networks are complementary—one network does not always substitute for another. However, local strength in one network can be used to build capacity in another network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]