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MCN Clinician Guides

MCN and Farmworker Justice offer these guides to assist clinicians in understanding farmworker health and safety regulations. OSHA’s Field Sanitation Standard; EPA's Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA); EPA's  Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA); EPA’s Worker Protection Standard (WPS).

MCN

 

DATE RECORDED: June 22, 2016

PRESENTED BY: Kerry Brennan

 

 

Continuing Education Credit

To receive CME* or CNE credit after viewing this webinar, you must:

  • Complete the Participant Evaluation associated with this webinar
  • Send an email with your first and last name stating which webinar you completed to contedu@migrantclinician.org
Description

José Navarro was excited for his new career after landing a job in the poultry industry. After five years on the job, 37 year-old Navarro began coughing up blood. He died soon after when his lungs and kidneys failed. His death triggered a federal investigation raising questions about the health risks associated with the use of toxic chemicals in poultry plants.

Millions of workers are exposed to chemicals everyday on the job. All workers have the right to know about the chemicals they work with and community health workers can be an important source of information and support for workers. This workshop will teach community health workers how to explain what happens when someone is exposed to chemicals and how workers can best protect themselves

Learning Objectives
  1. Recognize how workers become exposed to chemicals and illnesses
  2. Describe basic safety practices when working around chemicals
  3. Understand the role of community health workers in identifying and preventing work related illnesses and hazards
Further Reading

This material will be produced under grant number SH-27640-15-60-F-48-SH5 from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. It will not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

MCN

 

 

DATE RECORDED: June 8, 2016

PRESENTED BY: Juliana Simmons, MSPH, CHES

 

 

Continuing Education Credit

To receive CME* or CNE credit after viewing this webinar, you must:

  • Complete the Participant Evaluation associated with this webinar
  • Send an email with your first and last name stating which webinar you completed to contedu@migrantclinician.org
Description

It was 95 degrees when Maria Jimenez, 17 years old, collapsed from heat exhaustion at a farm in California. She died two days later. Each year, nearly 30 workers die from heat-related illness in the United States. Outdoor work in labor-intensive industries poses serious risks for workers, but heat-related illness can be easily prevented.

This workshop will help community health workers recognize and prevent heat-related illness among at-risk workers. Case studies will show how to recognize the symptoms and health effects of heat-related illness. Participants in this workshop will receive resources for preventing heat-related illness.

Learning Objectives
  1. Recognize symptoms of heat-related illness and how to respond
  2. Identify steps workers can take to prevent heat-related illness
  3. Review employer and worker rights and responsibilities related to heat stress
  4. Become familiar with heat stress prevention resources
Further Reading

This material will be produced under grant number SH-27640-15-60-F-48-SH5 from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. It will not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Worker Protection Standard (WPS) provides basic workplace protections to farmworkers and pesticide handlers to minimize the adverse effects of pesticide exposure. EPA announced major revisions to the WPS in September 2015. MCN and FJ's fact sheet provides a summary of the revised regulation.

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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.

Migrant Clinicians Network, Inc. (MCN) will work during the next two years to engage members of our clinical network and all relevant stakeholders to advance health justice for the mobile poor. Our advocacy and education priorities focus on safe and legal entry into the United States, as well as strong and equal protection for workers in all occupations. Advancement in these areas creates the greatest opportunity for all to access high-quality, affordable healthcare. 

  • Comprehensive Immigration Reform
  • Access to Health Care
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This new guide from the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership is intended to help civil legal aid practitioners message their work to health care audiences in order to build stronger cross sector medical-legal partnerships and to encourage investment in that work.

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On Monday August 18, 2014 MCN submitted technical comments to the EPA regarding the proposed changes to the Worker Protection Standard.  View MCN's recommendations for advancing stronger safeguards to protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure. 

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This proposal will I) provide a profile of the agricultural industry and Farmworkers in Washington State II) propose a theoretical framework to understand farmworker housing accessibility III) describe prior legislative actions to address farmworker housing IV) and propose a set of recommendations to address farmworker housing.

Published July 15, 2014

MCN holds the position that immigrant children fleeing violence in their home countries must receive priority consideration for their safety and health. We have provided several links with additional resources on this issue.

Safety in Words

Este diccionario ilustrado bilingüe de MCN, "Seguridad en Palabras/ Safety in Words", muestra los peligros que hay en el lugar de trabajo y las mejores prácticas para la salud y la seguridad en la agricultura. Desarrollado con el apoyo del Programa de Subvenciones Susan Harwood de OSHA, este recurso refuerza el vocabulario en inglés de los trabajadores que hablan español lo que ayudará a prevenir lesiones en la agricultura. 

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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

Print, cut, and distribute this handy bookmark to providers who treat migrant and seasonal farmworker patients. The bookmark includes links and a qr code to connect you to pesticide - related clinical tools and resources. In addition, we've included some useful phone numbers in case of a pesticide emergency.

You can also use the bookmark to keep handy the Health Network phone number to be sure your patients on the move remain in care.

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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. 

MCN's Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, Amy K. Liebman, appeared on the radio broadcast Epicenter: West Marin Issues on KWMR 90.5 FM to talk pesticides and the Worker Protection Standard. Liebman was joined by Hector Sanchez of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. Host Frederick Smith discusses with Liebman and Sanchez a variety of pesticide-related issues, including protections for farmworkers and their families, farmworkers' risks of pesticide exposures, how pesticides are regulated, their health effects on farmworkers and their families, and what healthcare providers can do to mitigate, diagnose, manage, and report pesticide exposures.

During the interview Liebman referenced the Agricultural Health Study, which is available here.

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

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

Provided by Farmworker Justice 

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

 

Provided by Farmworker Justice

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

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

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

 

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.

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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.

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

Glenn Shor, Phd, MPP, Visiting Policy Analyst at the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

This report was funded, in part, by The California Wellness Foundation, for UCSF Community Occupational Health Project, Barbara Burgel, Nan Lashuay, and Robert Harrison, 2004 - 2006.

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A tool for health care providers and others to assist agricultural workers in accessing workers' compensation benefits. A Farmworker Justice/MCN resource.

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These are the slides from an MCN/ Farmworker Justice sponsored webinar titled "Caring for the Injured Worker: Effective Partnerships between Clinicians, Health Centers, and Lawyers."

Originally presented on Wednesday June 26, 2013

PRESENTERS: Brent Probinsky, JD, Probinsky and Associates, PA

Dr. Ed Zuroweste, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Migrant Clinicians Network

Caring for the Injured Worker

 

RECORDED WEBINAR

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

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