Primary Care and Worker Protection MCN is working to assist front-line providers to integrate a focus on environmental and occupational health into primary care to strengthen the quality of care and meet the unique healthcare needs of the migrant population. MCN recognizes the majority of primary care providers, inlcuding those caring for the mobile poor, generally do not bring this environmental and occupational health perspective to their work. MCN focuses on feasible changes in clinical practices to improve the recognition and management of occupational exposures and injuries.
MCN's Workers and Health program partners with Migrant and Community Health Centers (M/CHCs) to establish Environmental and Occupational Health Centers of Excellence. The partnership program includes on-site clinical training, the provision of resources and technical assistance, and peer-to-peer networking between front-line providers and occupational and environmental medicine specialists.
Since 2006 MCN has established 13 model Environmental and Occupational Health Centers of Excellence across the US and Puerto Rico.
Download a description of MCN's Workers and Health program
Agricultural Worker Health and Safety Migrant and immigrant agricultural workers and their families face unique environmental and occupational health risks. Work in agriculture is one of the most dangerous occupations in the US.
MCN and the National Farm Medicine Center are partnering to provide health and safety training to immigrant dairy workers in Wisconsin. The Seguridad en las lecherias project targets limited English proficient, hard-to-reach workers with culturally and linguistically appropriate safety messages. The project also tests the use of a promotor de salud model to reinforce the safety messages and support increased worker safety.
This effort is part of the newly formed Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center based out of the University of Minnesota. It is one of several dairy-focused projects targeting low-literate, limited English proficient, hard to reach immigrant workers.
View our Seguridad en las lecherías year one project update here .
Educational Materials Development MCN's educational materials targeting migrant farmworkers and their families utilize a culturally appropriate format to convey health and safety messages.
MCN’s efforts in environmental and occupational health also involve the development and distribution of clinical and patient resources, training of clinicians and stakeholders through webinars, conferences and onsite workshops, and extensive partnerships with organizations having expertise in pesticides, occupational and environmental medicine and agricultural medicine. MCN has developed a number of patient education materials and training products for lay health educators (promotores de salud) to educate farmworkers about the risks from pesticide exposure and ways to protect themselves and their families and distributes thousands of these resources each year.
Clinical Tools In collaboration with partners and experts in occupational and environmental medicine and migrant health, MCN has developed tools for clinicians to translate need to practice.
MCN's Environmental and Occupational Health Partners MCN partners with organizations throughout the country to strengthen our ability to offer frontline clinicians expertise in primary care for immigrant and migrant agricultural workers, occupational and environmental medicine, migration health and worker protection.
National Farm Medicine Center
National Children's Center for Rural Agricultural Health and Safety .
Association for Occupational and Environmental Clinics
American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
AgriSafe Network
American Public Health Association (Occupational Health and Safety Section)
NIOSH-funded Agricultural Health and Safety Centers
Wake Forest University Worker Health Center
Farmworker Justice
National Center for Farmworker Health
Journal of Agrimedicine
EOH Expert Advisory Committee Geoffrey M. Calvert, MD, MPH, Team Leader, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Stephanie Chalupka, EdD, RN, PHCNS-BC, FAAOHN, Professor, Public Health Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing, Worcester State College Elizabeth Freeman Lambar, MPH, MSW, Program Director, North Carolina Farmworker Health Program Matthew C. Keifer MD, MPH, Director and Dean Emanuel Endowed Chair, National Farm Medicine Center Wilton Kennedy, DHSc, PA-C, MMSC, Past President of MCN, Director, Physician Assistant Program, Jefferson College of Health Sciences Katherine H. Kirkland, MPH, Executive Director, Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics Candace Kugel, FNP, CNM, Director of Performance Improvement, MCN James R. Roberts, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Medical University of South Carolina Daniel L. Sudakin, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Oregon State University Edward Zuroweste, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Migrant Clinicians Network Is Your Clinic Ready For an Emergency? This video describes a pesticides poisoning incident and how it affected a community health center.
**MCN’s EOH efforts are largely supported through cooperative agreements with the US Environmental Protection Agency as part of their National Strategies for Health Care Providers: Pesticide Initiative. The conclusions and opinions expressed herein are those of MCN and do not necessarily reflect the positions and policies of the U.S. EPA.
