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In order for SAgE—and the other three Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network regions—to effectively address farm stress, research is essential to discover the best methods to tackle it. Dr. Andy Smolski, SAgE’s Director of Applied Research, explains why applied research in particular is the type of research that’s needed to find solutions that can be put to work right away:
There’s a big distinction between what would be called basic research and applied research. We are not doing basic research. For instance, we are not trying to figure out generally how social systems operate or whether some fundamental or particular part is generalizable to a whole system.
What we are asking are applied questions about a very specific population or populations— farmers, ranchers, and farm workers—and then segmenting those populations even further, to ask things like, does social support provide some kind of benefit for farmers in terms of how they navigate farm stress and in terms of the outcomes? This is not to disparage basic research at all, but we want to convert our professional knowledge from these disciplines into usable tools that practitioners, extension workers, and farmers can can utilize for their own benefit.
The top-level work of FRSAN and its regional divisions is the delivery of resources and training to alleviate stress. The functional pieces of the work—the website, the hotline, the resource directory, partnership building, and applied research—are in support of that larger goal.
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