New Global Health Webinar Series Launches

This first webinar in the new series will run for approximately one hour, and provide attendees with guidance, real-world experiences and strategies they can use in practice to provide care for this patient population.

The new webinars pick up from a global health series the Academy launched in 2022 with a grant from the AAFP Foundation.

“There are an estimated 4.5 million migratory and seasonal agricultural workers and their families currently living in the United States,” said the event’s faculty members, Mariquita Belen, M.D., M.A.S., FAAFP, an associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown; and Lisa Miller, M.A., a training services manager with the National Center for Farmworker Health. “MSAWs are critical to our nation’s food system and contribute to the health of so many, yet often do not access health care services themselves. Understanding this special population will help physicians better serve MSAW families, resulting in better health outcomes for these patients.”

“We believe increasing access to care is vital to the overall health and well-being of the agricultural workforce by addressing significant social drivers of health (financial, housing, transportation, language, culture, legal); promoting and maintaining good health; preventing and managing acute and chronic diseases; and achieving health equity,” they added.

Program Details

The event, which will include a Q&A session, will cover a wide range of resources to help participants work with and increase knowledge of the MSAW population, along with ways to support and advocate for these individuals. It will be available later as an on-demand activity.

Upon completion, participants should be able to:

• define common health concerns that agricultural workers face;
• describe frequent barriers to care that seasonal and migratory agricultural workers encounter, and explore potential solutions;
• identify resources and training opportunities for family physicians and teams that provide health care for seasonal and migratory essential workers; and
• list essential vocabulary and other components to provide culturally competent care of agricultural workers.

In an email to AAFP News, Belen and Miller explained how attendees can take apply what they learn.

“Taking care of MSAWs necessitates multi-disciplinary care since they have multiple psychological, social, medical and cultural challenges,” they said. “Taking a holistic approach to care and advocating for policy changes to protect MSAWs will impact the current and future generations of MSAWs and their families.”