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In 2015, for the first time in over 20 years, the Environmental Protection Agency updated the Worker Protection Standard (WPS). The WPS provides basic workplace protections for agricultural workers to reduce the risk of pesticide exposre. This issue brief overviews the major revisions that are particularly relevant for clinicians caring for agricultural workers. 

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The National LGBT Health Education Center provides educational programs, resources, and consultation to health care organizations with the goal of optimizing quality, cost-effective health care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

http://www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org/

ADAO is the largest independent nonprofit in the U.S. dedicated to preventing asbestos exposure, eliminating asbestos-related diseases, and protecting asbestos victims' civil rights through education, advocacy, and community initiatives. 

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/cosmetics/Pages/default.aspx

An online, searchable database that allows salon workers and others to learn about and report toxic chemicals found in nail salon products and other cosmetics.

The Inter-professional Oral Health Faculty Toolkit, developed by the Oral Health Nursing Education and Practice program, is now available.The toolkit is an innovative web-based open source product intended to facilitate integration of oral-systemic health content and clinical competencies into nurse practitioner and midwifery curricula. 

"Abstract: Unathorized (undocumented) immigrants are less likely than other residents of the United States to have health insurance. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has long supported a basic health care package for all women living within the United States without regard to their country of origin or documentation. Providing access to qualify health care for unauthorized immigrants and their children, who often were born in the United States and have U.S. citizenship, is essential to improving the nation's publc health."

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Spanish-language skin cancer outreach materials from the American Academy of Dermatology, which are used during their public skin cancer examinations. Their pilot program providing examinations, targeting Hispanic outdoor workers in California, Arizona, Texas and Florida, was featured in MCN's Streamline, Autumn 2014.

Messages to Millions is designed to provide consistent, science-based Million Hearts® messages to disseminate to partners and supporters on a quarterly basis. Message maps provide key and supporting messages that stress the steps that can be taken by consumers, health care providers, and other audiences to help prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Recently in the UK, there has been research supporting midwifery care. Due to this research, the UK has made some policy changes in regards to maternity. Midwifery care has been shown to be more safe for women with uncomplicated pregnancies and because of these new policies, the United States may follow in their footsteps.

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The National Nework for Oral Health Access has developed a user’s guide that provides a structure, options, and suggestions to help Health Centers develop programs to implement oral health competencies that integrate oral health care into primary care practice, which increases access to oral health care and improves the oral health status of the populations Health Centers serve.

This report captures important happenings in occupational health and safety from August 2013 through July 2014. Authoured by researchers from the George Washington University Milken Institute School Of Public Health, this resource focuses on workplace injury and illness statistics each spring and documents successes, challenges, and areas ripe for improvement in occupational health and safety.  

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http://umash.umn.edu/needlestick-prevention/ This webpage features factsheets and videos developed by the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) to educate farmworkers, producers, and veterinarians about needlestick prevention.  Resources are available in both English and Spanish.  

Part 6 of the 6 webinar series: Essential Clinical Issues in Migration Health

DATE RECORDED: June 25, 2014
PRESENTED BY: Brett Pack, DMD, Dental Director, Moses Lake Community Health Center and Maria Smith, MPA, Project Director, National Network for Oral Health Access

View Recorded Webinar  

Participant Evaluation  

Presentation Slides (PDF)

To receive CME* or CNE credit after viewing any of these webinars you must do the following:
  • Complete the Participant Evaluation associated with each webinar
  • Send an email with your first and last name stating which webinar you completed to contedu@migrantclinician.org

Note: Only participants of the live webinar are eligible for continuing dental education units.

The Patient-Centered Health Home is a concept being implemented through a variety of approaches including full integration, co-location, shared financing, virtual linkages and facilitated referral and follow-up. Health Homes are an important approach for helping to ensure that health center populations have access to comprehensive health care services, including dental care. This presentation will describe how oral health can be integrated into overall primary care systems to improve health care quality and outcomes of the patients we serve, by illustrating promising practices from an example health center oral health program.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand why medical-dental integration is a positive attribute
  2. Describe examples of medical-dental integration at the clinical level
  3. Receive “take home” examples of how to incorporate oral health into your health center’s Patient-Centered Health Home.

 

FURTHER READING

Visit www.nnoha.org to access resources available to support safety net oral health programs and to join as a member.

Report mentioned during the webinar: Oral Health and the Patient Centered Health Home: Action Guide 
http://www.nnoha.org/resources/clinical-excellence/integrate-care/

Part 5 of the 6 webinar series: Essential Clinical Issues in Migration Health

DATE RECORDED: June 5, 2014
PRESENTED BY: Katherine Brieger, RD and Elizabeth Magenheimer

View Recorded Webinar

Participant Evaluation  

Presentation Slides (PDF)

To receive CME* or CNE credit after viewing any of these webinars you must do the following:
  • Complete the Participant Evaluation associated with each webinar
  • Send an email with your first and last name stating which webinar you completed to contedu@migrantclinician.org

Diabetes continues to be one of the most common and challenging health condition confronting migrants and other underserved populations. It is clear that a healthy lifestyle is critical to mitigating the impact of diabetes on individuals and the population, however effective and appropriate interventions can be difficult to design. Fairhaven Community Health Center in Connecticut and Hudson River Healthcare in New York, are two health centers that have long led the way in creating culturally appropriate lifestyle programs for migrants and other underserved patients. In this session the presenters will discuss lessons learned from the development of a variety of programs for diabetics and other patients including a community garden, nutrition classes, cooking classes, weight management and strategies to encourage exercise. The session will address the clinical core measures related to nutrition and BMI and will also discuss current research test second line drug effectiveness in Type 2 DM. Available in English

Learning Objectives:

  1. Describe culturally appropriate diabetes intervention strategies
  2. Identify strategies to address clinical core competencies related to nutrition and BMI to improve quality care.
  3. Receive “take home” examples of how to incorporate effective nutrition, weight loss, exercise and other health lifestyle strategies.

 

FURTHER READING

Download the Spanish Toolkit Materials

National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/preventionprogram

Bright Bodies, http://brightbodies.org

Three concise and effective environmental/occupational health screening questions for the primary care provider. English and Spanish. MCN, 2014.

An EHR-friendly version of these screening questions was developed through MCN's Workers & Health Program. This can be used as a reference for integration into the health center's Electronic Health Record. 

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These files are part of the Engaging Migrant Men project.

MCN developed 3 vignettes that portray the three messages developed in video and printed form.

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These files are part of the Engaging Migrant Men project.

Accompanying discussion guides were created to be used by male peers, community leaders, or outreach workers for one-on-one and small group discussions with men.

Limited data document the multiple and repeated pesticide absorption experienced by farmworkers in an agricultural season or their risk factors.

Laboratory studies and case reports of accidental exposure to large amounts of chemicals indicate that there are immediate and long‐term negative health consequences of exposure to agricultural chemicals. 

The goal of this study was to describe acute occupational pesticide-related illnesses among youths and to provide prevention recommendations. Survey data from 8 states and from poison control center data were analyzed.

Concern about the adverse public health and environmental effects of pesticide use is persistent. Recognizing the importance of surveillance for acute occupational pesticide-related illness, we report on surveillance for this condition across multiple states. Between 1998 and 1999, a total of 1,009 individuals with acute occupational pesticide-related illness were identified by states participating in the SENSOR-pesticides program. 

In response to limitations in state-based occupational disease surveillance, the California Department of Health Services developed a model for surveillance of acute, work-related pesticide illness. The objectives were to enhance case reporting and link case reports to preventive interventions. Risk factors for pesticide illness were prevalent. 

The California Pesticide Illness Surveillance Program (PISP) is a major resource for pesticide illness epidemiology. This work attempts to improve characterization of pesticide illness in California, evaluate case ascertainment of the PISP and identify PISP’s limitations and biases for studying the incidence and epidemiology of pesticide-related illness. 

Public health surveillance for acute pesticide intoxications is discussed. Explanation of the goals, components and functions of population-based surveillance is provided with reference to key informational sources.

Pesticide Action Network, United Farmworkers of America, and California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation analyzed California government data on agricultural poisonings and enforcement of worker safety standards. Nearly 500 pesticide poisonings were reported for California farmworkers every year. The actual number of pesticide-related illnesses is unknown, since many poisonings go unreported. 

Surveillance data show that pesticide-related illness is an important cause of acute morbidity among migrant farm workers in California. Exposures occur in various ways (e.g., residues, drift), suggesting that the use of pesticides creates a hazardous work environment for all farm workers  Improved education for health care providers should be a priority. Growers should be educated about alternative forms of pest control and incentives should be provided to encourage their use.

Describes the growth from 1987 through 1996 of the Occupational Pesticide Poisoning Surveillance Program at the Texas Department of Health. The program was initially based on a Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks (SENSOR) model, using sentinel providers to report cases, supplementing the passive reporting by physicians that was required by law. 

The authors describe the growth of the Occupational Pesticide Poisoning Surveillance Program at the Texas Department of Health. The program was based on a Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks(SENSOR) model, using sentinel providers to report cases. The number of confirmed occupational cases increased from 9 workers in 1987 to 99 workers in 1996.

Matthew C. Keifer, MD, MPH; Iris Reyes, MPH; Amy K. Liebman, MA, MPA; Patricia Juarez-Carrillo, PhD, MPH.  Abstract. Audience response systems (ARS) have long been used to improve the interactivity of educational activities. Most studies of ARS have addressed education of literate trainees. How well these devices work with low-literacy subjects is not well studied. Information gathering on the training audience is an important use of ARS and helpful in improving the targeting of training information. However, obtaining demographic information from vulnerable populations with reasons to be concerned about divulging information about themselves has not been tested. In addition, a culturally competent method to effectively collect demographic and evaluation data of this growing population is essential. This project investigated the use of ARS to gather information from Hispanic immigrant workers, many of whom are socially vulnerable and have limited English proficiency (LEP) and low-literacy. Workers attended focus groups and were asked to use ARS devices or clickers to respond to questions. Questions were both catergorical (multiple choice) and open-ended numerical (text entry), and varied from simple queries to more sensitive points regarding immigration. Most workers answered the one-key response categorical questions with little difficulty. In contrast, some participants struggled when responding to numerical questions, especially when the response required pressing multiple clicker keys. An overwhelming majority of participants reported that the clickers were comfortable and easy to use despite the challenges presented by the more complex responses. The error rate increased as question complexity increased and the trend across three ordered categories of response complexity reached statistical significance. Results suggest that ARS is a viable method for gathering dichotomous or higher-order categorical information from LEP and low-literacy populations in a group setting while assuring anonymity. However, it is recommended that clickers be developed and tested with fewer, bigger, and more widely separated buttons, and less printing on the buttons for these populations. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of using clickers with simplified configurations in the workplace as a tool to collect data for surveys and assessments and to better engage LEP and low-literacy workers in training sessions. 

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