Part 4 of the 6 webinar series: Essential Clinical Issues in Migration Health

DATE RECORDED: May 14, 2014
PRESENTED BY:  Candace Kugel, FNP, CNM and Megan Danielson, CNM

View Recorded Webinar 

 Participant Evaluation  

 Presentation Slides (PDF)

Migrant women face significant disparities with an additional layer of complexity and require different intervention strategies. Among them are reproductive health, pregnancy and childbirth, sexual and intimate partner violence, and cancers that disproportionately affect women, including cervical and breast cancer. Women often face environmental and occupational health exposures both in the home and in the workplace that heighten health risks. This session will provide a follow-up to the July 2013 presentation “Women’s Health at the Intersection of Poverty and Migration” that was part of our Clinician Orientation to Migration Health webinar series.  During this presentation Candace Kugel, FNP, CNM, and Meagan Danielson, CNM will discuss quality improvement and health care services for migrant women. The HRSA clinical performance measures related to women’s health will be reviewed as well as resources and best practices for improving the health of migrant women.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe strategies to address clinical core measures that relate to women’s health .
2. Discuss case studies that assist participants in understanding how creative collaborations and models of care can improve health outcomes for migrant women.
3. Participants will be able to access clinical resources for working with female migrant patients.

New bilingual resource available April 2014!

Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) has been using theater as an educational tool with farmworkers for over twenty years. By drawing on techniques of popular theater, SAF performs culturally appropriate, lively skits and facilitates theater workshops at farm labor camps. These performances spur conversations about mental and physical health, living and working conditions, and farmworker movements for social justice.

Many of SAF’s performances have focused on health issues, and they aim for this guide to offer dynamic tools for health care providers, educators, outreach workers, and public health innovators. Practitioners can also use these techniques with other populations across the social justice spectrum. For both organizers and educators, SAF hopes that popular theater can bolster the messages and information that you so readily share and provide a dynamic approach to outreach. Resources include songs, scripts, theater games and icebreakers. Printed copies are free, but SAF accepts small contributions to cover shipping and handling ($5-10/copy).

Available in print and online

Contact: Laxmi Haynes , 919-660-3660

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

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.

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. 

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.

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.

The CHAMACOS study is a longitudinal birth cohort study examining chemicals and other factors in the environment and children's health. 

In 1999-2000, CHAMACOS enrolled 601 pregnant women living in the agircultural Salinas Valley.  They are following their children through age 12 to measure their exposures to pesticides and other chemicals and to determine if this exposure impacts their growth, health, and development. 

This colorful bilingual comic addresses workers' compensation and immigrant dairy farm workers’ rights and responsibilities. It tells the story of a Mexican dairy farm worker who is injured on the job and the steps he and his employer take to make sure he receives his benefits, and the farm improves its safety. 

A report prepared by researchers at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services features a wealth of information on occupational health and safety and the migrant population, from farmworkers to fast-food chain employees to restaurant cooks and servers.

News release:
http://defendingscience.org/news/labor-day-looking-back-year-us-occupational-health-and-safety

Dramatic, visual and culturally relevant, fotonovelas are a successful means of communicating health information. The following fotonovela materials are downloadable.

Provided by Farmworker Justice

Two high-production value, Spanish radio public service announcements(PSAs) to promote HIV testing services at local agencies. One PSA targets men and the other women. Each PSA features a blank space for you to record your organization’s contact information. Provided by Farmworker Justice

A directory of organizations working to promote health and prevent HIV/AIDS in California, Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas.

Provided by Farmworker Justice

The Occupational Health and Safety Resource Center is a virtual repository of Spanish educational materials, data sources, and links to bilingual informational websites on occupational health and safety issues related to agricultural work. It also contains an ample list of national and state agencies that have produced materials in Spanish for farmworkers’ health-related problems.

MCNs own Deliana Garcia helped in being a part of the advisory committee to this resource center.

What is the objective?  To facilitate a central access point to high quality Spanish educational materials on agricultural occupational health and safety issues for people conducting work on health promotion and prevention activities and on workers’ rights and problems related to agricultural work.

Who are the target audiences? Health-outreach workers (promotores), community advocates, health providers, contractors/employers, farmworkers and their families, and others interested in the health and safety issues of agricultural workers.

What areas are included? The materials cover five key relevant areas: 1) Farmworkers’ rights; 2) Injury prevention; 3) Respiratory illnesses; 4) Heat illnesses; and 5) Pesticide exposure.

How did we do it? To develop the Virtual Resource Center, the process entailed:

• Asset mapping of educational, informational and research materials available in Spanish related to the five mentioned areas.
• Selection of materials using the following criteria: accurate information, culturally and linguistically adequate (including literacy level), relevant to health area, and visually acceptable quality.
• Insertion of resources into an excel format under five different categories, including source, type of material, and description of its content.

Development of new materials: to complement the existing educational resources, we developed a “Promotores Training Manual on Occupational Health and Safety of Agricultural Workers”.  Based on an ethnographic framework, the manual presents the perspective of agricultural workers on the five mentioned areas (their stories) and provides community health workers with tools on how to conduct prevention and promotion activities. It also refers them to existing resources.  We also produced a series of Spanish and selected indigenous languages Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on these areas.