2021 AgWorkers Virtual Conference

Welcome, Bureau of Primary Health Care Update and NACHC Policy Update. Keynote presentation description: The past year has shown the necessity to pivot when faced with emergencies, the urgency to speak up on behalf of agricultural workers, and the position health centers serve as national leaders of health care for marginalized populations. On any given day, a health center leader is faced with areas around community organizing, cultivating partnerships, workforce development, community and patient outreach, fiscal acuity, and leadership. This year they also faced a pandemic, rising racist attacks on their communities, fear of safety in their own buildings and demand for services only the frontline workforce like the agricultural workers we serve could provide. Our movement has seen leaders launch agricultural worker health programs and fight for civil rights for decades -- and as the next generation of leaders are facing similar challenges as their predecessors, they are also seeing the opportunities to strengthen these programs for the future. Through a moderated discussion with UnidosUS’ Vice President of Health, Rita Carreon, a cross-generational set of leaders will discuss their work, their perspectives, their cautions, and most importantly, their hope for the future of the Health Center Movement.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has been a traumatic event for people around the world and in communities around the United States. Among health center staff, furloughs, task shifting and remote work, and increased exposure risk are just some of the challenges presented over the last year. In their work to bridge services and provide access to necessary care, health center staff have navigated the trauma of vulnerable patients, sometimes taking it on themselves.

The tendency for burnout and compassion fatigue is already high for healthcare workers, and the pandemic has only increased demands on staff. A trauma-informed self-care framework provides health center leadership with the capacity to recognize and address signs of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma, but also to help prevent some of the consequences to health center operations.

In this 90-minute session, participants will be introduced to a trauma-informed, healing-centered approach to organizational self-care. The presenters will address the ways in which trauma of the pandemic may affect health center staff and patients. Participants will learn how they can use a trauma-informed framework to establish and improve their organizational self-care policies and practices to support health center staff as they adjust to the post-pandemic context.

Migrant Head Start sites and Migrant Health Centers are dedicated to improving the health and well-being of farmworker families. Many Health Centers partner with their local Migrant Head Start site but the strength of that collaboration varies widely. Farmworker Justice and the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Collaboration Office (MSHSCO) have been working with MSHS grantees and Health Centers to strengthen their collaborations to serve not just MSHS children but also their families. During this session, we will discuss different levels of partnership so participants can assess their collaboration with the Health Centers. We will also share strategies to strengthen the partnership, highlighting the partnership between Greene County Health Care and Migrant Head Start. Participants will share their own experiences working with Health Centers.

2020 Outstanding Migrant Health Center Award and 2020 Lifetime Achievement in Migrant Health Award

Join NACHC’s National Grassroots Advocacy team as we discuss advocacy best practices, grassroots mobilization, and farmworker health. During this session, speakers will discuss how centering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) will strengthen the storytelling aspect of our collective advocacy. Significant focus will be given to effective coalition-building and the importance of invitations in movement building. Promotoras will also co-present on how we can use lessons from the field to build a stronger base of defensores to promote the Community Health Center Mission.

We will discuss the importance of value-based contracting, the financial impacts it has on Health Centers and, most important, how that level of financial stability has helped during the pandemic not only from a cash flow perspective, but also allows systems to maintain a workforce that can be redirected to deal with the needs of the community.

2020 Outstanding Migrant Health Center Board Member and 2020 Outstanding Migrant Health Public Service Award

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) are structural conditions (i.e. where people are born, grow, live, work, and age) that influence people’s health and well-being. It is important to identify the SDOH that impact communities that are marginalized because they are often most burdened by their negative effects. Providers serving complex and underserved populations need tools and strategies to identify patients experiencing social, institutional, and environmental factors that may drive poor outcomes and higher costs, as well as develop patient-, organizational-, systemic- and policy-level solutions to address these factors and ultimately improve population health.

Screening for SDOH helps health centers identify key barriers to care and create opportunities to facilitate better service delivery. The Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients Assets, Risks and Experiences (PRAPARE) is a national effort to help health centers and other providers collect and apply the data they need to better understand their patients’ social determinants, transform care to meet patient and population needs, and demonstrate the value they bring to patients, communities, and payers. Community Health Workers (CHWs) serve key populations that are vulnerable to adverse health outcomes due to socioeconomic factors, including poverty, unsafe work conditions, food insecurity, lack of transportation, and substandard housing. CHWs can engage in a wide array of activities to screen for and identify SDOH among their patients, including collecting SDOH information, using the PRAPARE tool, documenting SDOH data in electronic health records, and training staff to use data to address patients’ social needs.

This presentation will provide an overview of the importance of screening for SDOH, how CHW programs can be incorporated to improve screening among CHW populations, and promising practices for CHW programs addressing SDOH. Participants will obtain a better understanding of how CHW programs can positively impact screening efforts for SDOH in health care settings and how SDOH data can help health centers.

Ensuring robust board orientation and ongoing board education ensures all members of a health center board feel comfortable contributing to board oversight and strategic deliberations. This session will highlight various approaches for orienting and engaging board members. Various resources available to support health center boards will be highlighted and time will be dedicated for participants to consider components of a board training plan and effective modes of delivery. Presenters will also discuss the challenges and strategies to recruit and engage consumer board members as the pandemic continues.

2021 Outstanding Migrant Health Center Board Member and 2021 Outstanding Migrant Health Public Service Award. Video Tour of Migrant Health Center: North Carolina Community Health Center Association.

As frontline essential workers, agricultural worker communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID, an impact exacerbated by social determinants of health such as immigration status. The Biden Administration’s commitment to health equity creates opportunities to promote and increase health care access for agricultural workers and their families as we continue to navigate the COVID pandemic. Since January 2021, numerous policies have been enacted or proposed which would expand health care access, improve occupational safety and health protections, and address social determinants of health. This session, featuring subject matter experts from the National Immigration Law Center, Farmworker Justice, the California Primary Care Association, and MICOP will share information from the federal, state, and local perspective. We will provide updates on public charge, immigration policy, the Affordable Care Act, and COVID relief legislation, among other policies that impact agricultural worker communities and migrant health centers. Speakers will identify resources and strategies for health centers and agricultural workers to promote health care access during COVID and beyond.