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The nation’s
network of Migrant Health Centers (MHCs) is charged with providing
comprehensive primary and preventive health care to migrant and
seasonal farmworkers and their families. MHC services are available
to patients, regardless of their immigration status. A sliding fee
scale is used to set the cost of services and, typically the minimum
cost of a visit is $20-25. Currently, there are 139 MHCs nationwide.
These centers receive federal grants under section 330 (g) of the
Public Health Services Act, which partially cover the cost of their
services. In some areas that lack the concentration of migrants
needed to support a health center, “voucher” programs have been
established, which enable migrant families to secure services from
participating private health care providers.
Approximately
670,000 farmworkers or their family members received care in 2004 at
MHCs. This represents about 15% of the total population. In
addition, according to a recent National Agricultural Worker Survey
(2005), 22% of farmworkers reported that they or their family
members are covered by private health insurance or Medicaid. Since
most farmworkers are poor, with an average annual family income of
between $12,500 and $14,499, some workers go without health care
even when they need it.
Farmworker
Justice, in partnership with the Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN)
and Migrant Health Promotion (MHP), provides capacity building
assistance to migrant health centers primarily on issues of
occupational and environmental health. Our services include:
providing training and individualized consultations to clinicians,
outreach workers, and promotores de salud (lay health
educators); developing curricula, evaluation tools and patient
education materials; conducting advocacy and responding to inquiries
on health policy and health law issues; writing reports and
articles; developing and disseminating research; and assisting new
starts and applicants for health center grants..
MCN is the oldest and
largest clinical network serving the mobile underserved (www.migrantclinician.org).
It provides technical assistance to MHCs, including on-site and
online training, individualized consultations and development of
culturally appropriate and up-to-date materials, concerning:
recruitment and retention of health center staff; clinical issues;
developing clinical leadership; bridge case management and referrals
(through its networks such as Track II on diabetes); continuing
professional education, peer networking for clinicians, patient
education and other clinical resources. It also publishes the
Streamline newsletter.
Migrant Health
Promotion (MHP) works to strengthen the capacity of farmworker
families and communities to improve their health, using peer
education and advocacy (www.migranthealth.org). Its technical
assistance focuses on the development and implementation of its Camp
Health Aide and other promotores de salud programs; the
development of culturally appropriate training curricula, evaluation
tools, patient education and other health education materials;
identification of funding opportunities and assistance with grant
development; promoting networking among program managers, and
promotores, and the dissemination of a promotor(a) newsletter.
Three other groups
also provide assistance to MHCs. They are:
Farmworker
Health Services Inc. or FHSI (www.farmworkerhealth.org):
FHSI focuses primarily on the development and support of health
outreach and enabling services programs; creating health education
and prevention materials; promoting cultural competency; and
collecting health data on outcome measures, etc.
National
Association of Community Health Centers Inc. or NACHC (www.nachc.com):
NACHC promotes the provision of high quality, comprehensive health
care that is accessible, coordinated, culturally and linguistically
competent, and community-directed for all underserved populations.
Its training and technical assistance services focus on: Health
Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funding initiatives;
health center governance and financial operations; educating new
medical directors, etc. It also sponsors an annual, national migrant
health conference, administers a migrant-health list serve and email
distribution group; monitors and recommends policies affecting MHCs
or their patients; facilitates recruitment and retention of health
center staff; develops clinical protocols and tools; and offers
accreditation for clinical continuing education, etc.
The National
Center for Farmworker Health or NCFH (www.ncfh.org):
NCFH works to improve the health status of farmworker families
through the application of human and technical resources. Its
technical assistance services include: leadership development and
training; migrant-specific and bi-lingual on-site consultations;
development and dissemination of research, training and patient
education materials; maintenance of a current and archival library
and multi-media resource center; network development and expansion:
facilitating navigation of the public health system and the securing
care in exceptional circumstances via the Call for Health system;
health center governance and management; and recruitment and
retention of health center staff.
To find a
clinic in your area, search HRSA’s website
http://ask.hrsa.gov/pc/, or consult MCN’s directory of migrant
health centers and primary care association, (www.migrantclinician.org/healthcenters/healthcenterdirectory.php)
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