Families Talking Together (FTT) is an evidence based program designed to help Latino parents better communicate with their children and teens about healthy relationships, sex, contraceptive use, and preventing pregnancy.  Dr. Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, the creator of the program and co-director of the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health at New York University’s Silver School of Social work, along with Planned Parenthood Los Angeles and Visión y Compromiso, recently enlisted 25 promotores (community health workers) from three communities in California with high rates of teen pregnancy and high percentages of Latinos in an effort to help Latino parents address teen pregnancy. Over a four-day period, the 25 promotores were trained to deliver the FTT intervention.  In the next two months, the promotores will deliver the intervention to 250 families in California.  The National Campaign wishes to recognize and thank Dr. Guilamo-Ramos, PPLA, and Visión y Compromiso for their work on this innovative and important project. 

The FTT intervention—both the community health worker curriculum and parent materials---are available online, free of charge.  

Comprehensive Spanish-language curriculum for individuals interested in training promotores de salud in HIV prevention. The curriculum is based on popular education techniques, and is culturally competent and linguistically sensitive.

 Provided by Farmworker Justice

This webinar is the sixth in a series of seven in our Clinician Orienatation to Migration Health.

DATE RECORDED: Wednesday, July 17, 2013
PRESENTED BY: Candace Kugel, FNP, CNM, Specialist in Clinical Systems & Women's Health and Melissa Bailey, Executive Director of North Carolina Field, Inc.

To view the recorded version of this webinar, click here.

Introduction

In August of 2005, the North Carolina Division of Public Health, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB) was notified that three women who had worked on farms in North Carolina owned by Ag-Mart had delivered infants with birth defects.  All three births took place in Florida where the women also worked on Ag-Mart farms and lived near each other.  This report summarizes the OEEB’s investigation and assessment of the pesticide exposures likely experienced by these women while in North Carolina. 

An informative blog about workers' compensation, risk management, business insurance, workplace health & safety, occupational medicine, injured workers, and related topics.

The Diabetes and Healthy Eyes Toolkit provides community health workers with tools to inform people with diabetes about diabetic eye disease and maintaining healthy vision. The toolkit has a flipchart that is easy to use in community settings and can be incorporated into existing diabetes classes or information sessions. It is available in English andSpanish.

Sherry L. Baron, MD, MPH, Sharon Beard, MS, Letitia K. Davis, ScD, EdM, Linda Delp, PhD, MPH, Linda Forst, MD, MPH, Andrea Kidd-Taylor, PHD, Amy K. Liebman, MPA, MA, Laura Linnan, ScD, Laura Punnett, ScD, and Laura S. Welch, MD

Background: Nearly one of every three workers in the United States is low-income. Low-income populations have a lower life expectancy and greater rates of chronic diseases compared to those with higher incomes. Low- income workers face hazards in their workplaces as well as in their communities. Developing integrated public health programs that address these combined health hazards, especially the interaction of occupational and non-occupational risk factors, can promote greater health equity.

Methods: We apply a social-ecological perspective in considering ways to improve the health of the low-income working population through integrated health protection and health promotion programs initiated in four different settings: the worksite, state and local health departments, community health centers, and community-based organizations.

Results: Examples of successful approaches to developing integrated programs are presented in each of these settings. These examples illustrate several complementary venues for public health programs that consider the complex interplay between work related and non work-related factors, that integrate health protection with health promotion and that are delivered at multiple levels to improve health for low-income workers.

Conclusions: Whether at the workplace or in the community, employers, workers, labor and community advocates, in partnership with public health practitioners, can deliver comprehensive and integrated health protection and health promotion programs. Recommendations for improved research, training, and coordination among health departments, health practitioners, worksites and community organizations are proposed.

Sara A. Quandt, PhD, Kristen L. Kucera, PhD, Courtney Haynes, MS, Bradley G. Klein, PhD, Ricky Langley, MD, Michael Agnew, PhD, Jeffrey L. Levin, MD, Timothy Howard, PhD, and Maury A. Nussbaum, PhD

Background Workers in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (AgFF) sector experience exposures directly related to the work itself, as well as the physical environment in which the work occurs. Health outcomes vary from immediate to delayed, and from acute to chronic.

Methods We reviewed existing literature on the health outcomes of work in the AgFF sector and identified areas where further research is needed to understand the impact of these exposures on immigrant Latino workers in the southeastern US.

Results Outcomes related to specific body systems (e.g., musculoskeletal, respiratory) as well as particular exposure sources (e.g., pesticides, noise) were reviewed. The most extensive evidence exists for agriculture, with a particular focus on chemical exposures. Little research in the southeastern US has examined health outcomes of exposures of immigrant workers in forestry or fisheries.

Conclusion As the AgFF labor force includes a growing number of Latino immigrants, more research is needed to characterize a broad range of exposures and health outcomes experienced by this population, particularly in forestry and fisheries.

By Amy K. Liebman, MPA, MA, Melinda F. Wiggins, MTS, Clermont Fraser, JD, Jeffrey Levin, MD, MSPH, Jill Sidebottom, PhD, and Thomas A. Arcury, PhD

Background Immigrant workers make up an important portion of the hired workforce inthe Agricultural, Forestry and Fishing (AgFF) sector, one of the most hazardous industrysectors in the US. Despite the inherent dangers associated with this sector, workerprotection is limited.

Methods This article describes the current occupational health and safety policies andregulatory standards in theAgFF sector and underscores the regulatory exceptions and limitationsin worker protections. Immigration policies and their effects on worker health and safety arealso discussed. Emphasis is placed on policies and practices in the Southeastern US.

Results Worker protection in the AgFF sector is limited. Regulatory protections are generallyweaker than other industrial sectors and enforcement of existing regulations is woefullyinadequate. The vulnerability of the AgFF workforce is magnified by worker immigrationstatus. Agricultural workers in particular are affected by a long history of “exceptionalism”under the law as many regulatory protections specifically exclude this workforce.

Conclusions A vulnerable workforce and high-hazard industries require regulatoryprotections that, at a minimum, are provided to workers in other industries. A systematicpolicy approach to strengthen occupational safety and health in the AgFF sector mustaddress both immigration policy and worker protection regulations.

The West Virginia Rural Health Research Center (WVRHRC) pursues a multi-disciplinary research effort directed to improve environmental health for rural populations. Collaborators from public health, geographic information systems, nursing, pharmacy, environmental science, health policy and other disciplines work together to conduct policy-relevant research to achieve this goal.

This webinar is the second in a series of seven in our Clinician Orientation to Migration Health.

DATE RECORDED: Wednesday, March 13, 2013
PRESENTED BY: Jennie McLaurin, MD, MPH, Specialist in Child and Migrant Health, Migrant Clinicians Network

To view the recorded version of this webinar, click here.

Objectives. We assessed implicit and explicit bias against both Latinos and

This article from the American Journal of Public Health is on implicit bias.

Authors: Irene V. Blair, PhD, Edward P. Havranek, MD, David W. Price, MD, Rebecca Hanratty, MD, Diane L. Fairclough, DrPH, Tillman Farley, MD, Holen K. Hirsh, PhD, and John F. Steiner, MD, MPH

Objectives. We assessed implicit and explicit bias against both Latinos and African Americans among experienced primary care providers (PCPs) and community members (CMs) in the same geographic area.

Methods. Two hundred ten PCPs and 190 CMs from 3 health care organizationsin the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area completed Implicit Association Tests and self-report measures of implicit and explicit bias, respectively.

Results. With a 60% participation rate, the PCPs demonstrated substantial implicit bias against both Latinos and African Americans, but this was no different from CMs. Explicit bias was largely absent in both groups. Adjustment for background characteristics showed the PCPs had slightly weaker ethnic/racial bias than CMs.

Conclusions. This research provided the first evidence of implicit bias against Latinos in health care, as well as confirming previous findings of implicit bias against African Americans. Lack of substantive differences in bias between the experienced PCPs and CMs suggested a wider societal problem. At the same time, the wide range of implicit bias suggested that bias in health care is neither uniform nor inevitable, and important lessons might be learned from providers who do not exhibit bias.

(Am J Public Health. 2013;103:92–98. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.300812)

University of Minnesota's Global Health training program is offering free short courses on immigrant and refugee health.

A preliminary total of fatal work injuries recorded in the United States. According to results from the 
Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor
 Statistics.