This issue of Forced Migration Review, features an article about the Strengthening What Works initiative called "Preventing partner violence in refugee and immigrant communities." The article provides an overview of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative for readers in the humanitarian and public health sectors and features information about MCN's program Hombres Unidos.
EthnoMed contains information about cultural beliefs, medical issues and related topics pertinent to the health care of immigrants to Seattle or the US, many of whom are refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the world. Search the site via culture and clinical topics.
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The importance of clinical diagnostic tools and biomonitoring of exposures to pesticides as well the role of clinicians in pesticide reporting and the challenges clinicians face in accurately diagnosing patients exposed to pesticides are described in a presentation by Matthew Keifer, MD, MPH and Amy K. Liebman, MPA. Click on the link for an APHA policy resolution underscoring the need for clinical diagnostic tools and biomomitoring of exposures to pesticides. This policy supports the information outlined by in the presentation.
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HEAT ILLNESS CAN BE DEADLY. Every year, thousands of workers become sick from exposure to heat, and some even die. These illnesses and deaths are preventable.
OSHA has now posted a new Heat Illness Web Page that includes educational materials in English and Spanish, including low-literacy fact sheets for workers, worksite and community posters, and a public service announcement from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. The Web page also includes a video from Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels (in English with a Spanish transcript). OSHA will be posting additional materials on the Heat Illness Web page, including a lesson plan that employers can use to train their workers to stay safe in the heat and a heat index Smartphone app.
This EPA report contains the latest estimates of agricultural and nonagricultural pesticide use in the United States.
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- market_estimates06-07.pdf (563.59 KB)
The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) is a network of nurses from around the country (and world) who are acting on the notion that our environment and health are inextricably connected. We are a group of nurses from all walks of our profession – hospital-based, public health, school-based, academics, and advanced practice, to name a few.
We are helping to integrate environmental health into nursing education, greening our many workplaces, incorporating environmental exposure questions into our patient histories, providing anticipatory guidance to pregnant women and parents about environmental risks to children, implementing research that addresses environmental health questions, and advocating for environmental health in our workplaces and governmental institutions.
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Three newsletters the NHSC has developed for each of its primary member segments -- Clinicians in Service, Scholars in School, and NHSC sites.
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- corpsconnection.pdf (113.14 KB)
- corpsconnectionin_school.pdf (106.84 KB)
- corpsconnectioninservice.pdf (123.01 KB)
The Health Protection Agency's role is to provide an integrated approach to protecting UK public health through the provision of support and advice to the NHS, local authorities, emergency services, other arms length bodies, the Department of Health and the devolved administrations.
Through radiomexicointernacional, listen to unique programming to meet and know about Mexico. www.radiomexicointernacional.imer.gob.mx transmits content on a wide variety of topics in Spanish, English and French, and some Indian languages. With rich programming topics, languages and Mexican music, resurfaces Radio Mexico International, now via internet.
Fighting cancer is difficult enough, but living with it is even tougher - and that's where the Cleaning for A Reason Foundation steps in. This nonprofit offers free professional housecleaning, and maid services to improve the lives of women undergoing treatment for cancer - any type of cancer.
This fact sheet provides insight into the most common obstacles that people with disabilities in California face when attempting to access health care. Through the administration of a state-wide survey on the accessibility of health care facilities for people with disabilities, many key problem areas were brought to attention.
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- DisabilityRightsfactsheet.doc (175.5 KB)
Mobile Voices (VozMob) is a platform for immigrant workers and / or low income can create stories about their lives and communities directly from their mobile phones. Each week the team discusses popular media stories, develops and shares knowledge, designs the system, and creates training tools. The communication equipment is made popular by day laborers, domestic workers, and youth volunteers have taken very seriously the role of writing their own history. We also meet every week at USC to develop research on the project.
Links
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g924790533
The Journal of Agromedicine published this FREE special issue (Volume 15, Issue 3) that presents papers based upon the research and safety strategies presented at the "Be Safe, Be Profitable: Protecting Workers in Agriculture" conference held in January 2010 in Dallas, Texas. The conference was a joint meeting of the Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America (ASCHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). "It is our hope that this collection of editorials, panel presentations, plenary talks, and poster abstracts stimulates a new order of translational research, leading to effective research partnerships and improved health and safety outcomes," states Editor-in-Chief Steven Kirkhorn.
Do not miss the opportunity to read the results from this groundbreaking agricultural safety and health conference!
Poder Sano is a new initiative by Farmworker Justice to help mobilize rural Latino communities around the prevention of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis. Through this project, Farmworker Justice will provide free capacity-building assistance and community mobilization tools to strengthen community-based organizations' HIV prevention programs, improve monitoring and evaluation practices, and create partnerships for program support.
Poder Sano aims to mobilize rural Latino communities around the prevention of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and other health concerns relevant to migrant farmworkers.
The first website in Spanish of its kind to help consumers take control of their health care by connecting them to new information and resources that will help them access quality, affordable health care coverage. President Obama wrote an op-ed in La Opinion and El Diario La Prensa today that highlights the website and the importance of health reform to the Latino community.
Health Outreach Partners’ fourth national needs assessment of farmworker health outreach. This groundbreaking report provides a compelling summary of national data focused solely on farmworker outreach programs and the farmworker communities they serve. This is the only project of its kind that provides a national snapshot on the needs of farmworker health outreach programs. Attached you will find a press release with additional details concerning this important report.
We encourage you to share this report with your peers by:
- Posting a link to the report in the “news” or “resource” sections of your website;
- Circulating the attached press release via your listservs; and/or
- Announcing this report in your upcoming organizational newsletter.
The valuable data included in this report can be leveraged for reporting purposes, funding proposals, program planning, and advocacy efforts to benefit the migrant and seasonal farmworker population.
Research projects and studies conducted by the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Health and Safety Center at the University of Washington.
The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) has recently released its fall issue of Needle Tips, http://www.immunize.org/nt with news and information for all health professionals who give vaccines. Also available is Vaccinate Adults, http://www.immunize.org/va a condensed version ofNeedle Tips for those who work only with adult patients.
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- Immunews_Oct09_bonus.pdf (48.73 KB)
Our topic for the month is H1N1 vaccinations. Dealing with both seasonal flu vaccinations and the constant swirl of information, availability, and updates around the H1N1 vaccine has made this a challenging season flu season for providers. We offer direct links to several CDC web pages and one patient flyer from the CDC.
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- Immunews_Nov09.pdf (75.9 KB)
Again, Dr. Deborah Wexler, the Executive Director of the Immunization Action Coalition provides further reading and research on the topic of parental hesitation. In the second half, we take a brief look at adults specifically: why do adults hesitate to receive vaccines? Are these barriers the same as for parents on behalf of their children? Please feel free to send responses, comments, thoughts, and ideas to the listserv administrator atkath@healthletter.com. If you send comments, we will follow up with your responses and ideas in the next listserv.
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- Immunews_Oct09.pdf (79.58 KB)
A core set of information appropriate for reviewing the operation and performance of health centers.
To address the critical need for relevant information about the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker (MSFW) population nationwide, the Migrant Clinicians Network developed an innovative project to test a set of methodologies for collecting and analyzing MSFW data. The methods used in this project will enhance planning capability for health services by gathering up-to-date, locally specific descriptive profiles of the MSFW population eligible for health care services and provide a mechanism to determine future trends that can affect health services delivery and formulation of health care plans, staffing decisions, outreach activities, preventive care emphases, budgeting and appropriate service hours. The methodologies tested employ systems that can be self-sustaining, providing continual, timely updates at a local level where such information is most useful. The systems foster collaboration between local service providers, encouraging Migrant Health Centers (MHCs) and others who serve the MSFW population to work together to share information which can be beneficial to all.
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- ExecSummFinal.pdf (91.58 KB)
First of all, this month we offer some reminders for resources that are available to help you navigate, with your clients, between immunization requirements in the US and those from neighboring Mexico. Second, we guide you to a link on the World Health Organization website where you can check other countries’ immunization requirements and schedules. This may give you a starting point for understanding your migrant clients’ immunization histories. Third, we offer a sample bi-lingual parent-held pediatric vaccine record. Remember, “the most reliable source of vaccine information on any particular individual is that individual! Contrary to popular belief, parents DO carry portable vaccination records when given them. This is particularly true for immigrant families, who are used to carrying important documents and who realize the potential of revaccination if records are unavailable to the local provider.” Jennie McLaurin, MD Finally, in the season of giving, our gift offer to the clinics participating in Immunization Initiatives send us the English patient-held vaccine record you use for your clients, and we will translate it into Spanish. We offer this first to the clinics participating in Immunization Initiatives, and to the first six clinics who contact us. Email the listserv administrator to make arrangements at kath@healthletter.com
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- immunews_Dec09_0.pdf (1015.64 KB)
The Lancet's H1N1 Resource Center is a collaborative effort by the editors of over 40 Elsevier-published journals and 11 learned societies who have agreed to make freely available on this site any relevant content. All papers have been selected by a Lancet editor, grouped by topic and fulltext pdfs made available to download free of charge.
Charles W. Schmidt, Swine CAFOs & Novel H1N1 Flu: Separating Facts from Fears, Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 117, Number 9, September 2009
A broken system leaves immigrant workers invisible -- and in danger. High Country News, 8/2009
Welcome to Immu-News, the Immunization Initiatives listserv, a monthly resource for the community of participants in this project. For now, this is post-only listserv (in other words, you will get only one e-mail per month in your mailbox, instead of floods of daily discussions) but we hope to evolve into a more interactive form, something that will truly be of service to you as each of you searches for ways to improve your ability to record and access immunization data, to increase immunizations provided to your clients, and thus to improve the health of your community.
Our topic for this month is introduced by Dr. Jennie McLaurin, MCN’s Migrant Health Specialist and the Project Director for the Immunization Initiative. We include examples and a source for patient-held immunization records, and two articles on the topic. Please feel free to send responses, comments, thoughts, and ideas to the listserv administrator at kath@healthletter.com. If you send comments, we will follow up with your responses and ideas in the next listserv.
Immu-News is also pleased to feature Grounded in Practice, highlights from the real world clinics participating in Immunization Initiatives. We begin with San Benito Health Foundation in Hollister, CA. We invite you to send suggestions, stories, examples of things that have worked to improve immunization practices in your clinic. Send your ideas to kath@healthletter.com
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- immunews_july09.pdf (127.9 KB)
Our June topic is IIS or Immunzaion Registries. Between August and October of 2008, immunization initiative staff at MCN conducted structured interviews with all State Immunization Coordinators or their designated contact persons in an effort to identify state programs that address the immunization needs. In response to the question “does your state have an electronic immunization registry?” we found that 42 states have registries, six states are in the process of implementing them, and two states do not have registries. Out of 42 states with registries, 37 are in both public and private settings and 31 are “birth to death” registries, including both children and adults. To view report, go to: http://www.migrantclinician.org/toolsource/resource/interviews-state-programs-addressing-immunization-needs.html
We offer three articles that discuss the progress of using immunization registries to improve recording and access of immunization data. Click on the links below to access the full articles.
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- immunews_June09.pdf (81.33 KB)
Our May topic is “What Do Migrants from Mexico, Central and South America Think About Immunization?” MCN has conducted several focus groups in recent years on this topic, and we share with you, in two papers, what we learned in these focus groups.
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- immunews_may09.doc (79 KB)