Capacity Building in Occupational Health: Ventanilla de Salud of San Bernardino, CA
By: Graciela Molina
[Editor’s Note: In this guest blog post, Graciela Molina shares how the Ventanilla de Salud in San Bernardino partnered with Migrant Clinicians Network to support local workers. Learn more about Ventanillas de Salud and their work to support health at each of the Mexican Consulates around the US at: https://ventanilladesalud.org. Follow the San Bernardino VdS at: https://www.facebook.com/VDSSANBERNARDINO/]
In our community of San Bernardino, in the Inland Empire not far from Los Angeles, a significant percentage of workers harvest fruits and vegetables, and the majority of these workers are Latinxs who lack formal education and have limited knowledge about their rights as workers and how to manage their overall health. On top of that, these farmworkers face challenges such as long work days, poor living conditions, and inadequate wages that do not equate to the hard work and effort they put into their job.
At the Ventanilla de Salud (VdS) in San Bernardino, we seek to improve the health of Latinxs who visit the Mexican Consulate where the VdS is located. When Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) partnered with us to offer a new capacity-building project, we were able to deepen this population’s understanding of health and safety in the workplace while providing them the resources necessary to get them the help they need.
This project was made possible through the active involvement of the Community Department of the Mexican Consulate of San Bernardino, the Ventanilla de Salud, and a group of three community health workers who live in the Coachella area. These community health workers did an excellent job facilitating presentations while facing the continued challenges of COVID-19 as well as the extreme heat that is characteristic of our area in California. In spite of these challenges, nothing got in the way of the team's ability to reach workers with timely health and safety information.
In addition to the three community health workers, our team also included two students who facilitated virtual trainings, providing health and safety information over Zoom. Since we had never provided these trainings virtually, we then took the time to learn the ins and outs of managing the virtual program and all of its features. Through these virtual presentations, we were able to reach a wonderful group of housekeeping employees with information about the dangers of cleaning chemicals and how to use them safely. In order to cater to their specific needs, we modified our presentation content to focus on material that was most relevant to their work. We received excellent feedback from each of the virtual trainings we provided. In both virtual and in-person sessions, we were able to reach 356 workers for a total of 502 hours of training.
These workers are counting on us, and though our team does not consider ourselves experts in the field of occupational health, this program has strengthened our capacity in this area considerably and demonstrated that we will support workers however we are able. Because of our trainings, they now know where to go when they face problems with their health or their work. They also know that they are supported by the Department of Protection of the Mexican Consulate, who participated in each of the virtual trainings and addressed questions related to workers rights.
It’s also important to note the wonderful work conducted by Tammy Garcia Chiang, Ventanilla de Salud staff member and coordinator of the consulate’s Department of Community Affairs. Integrating the various available resources and programs of each entity and linking them to the communities they serve, she developed a strong work plan that was successful in every way.
I would like to especially thank MCN’s Alma Galván, Kate Kruse, and Martha Alvarado. They consistently maintained a high level of professionalism and were always attentive to our needs: clarifying any issues, offering advice, and providing excellent training tools and strategies. Each one of them offered their unwavering support, and their consistent help and patience were of great value to our team throughout this entire process.
Here are a few resources that can help:
Water, Rest, Shade: 9-minute video that presents some of the most important issues about prevention and adequate response to heat illness.
Safety in Words: MCN's Bilingual Graphic Dictionary which illustrates risks in the workplace and the best health and safety practices in agriculture.
The Playing Field: This 18-minute video tells a story of a girl who experienced exposure to pesticides while she played in the field, where her father works.
Chasing the Sun: This 30-minute video serves as a lesson on pesticide safety in the field.
¡Cuídate! A Simple Guide For Preventing Muscle Injuries At Work: An educational resource on the prevention of musculoskeletal injuries at work. This comic is in Spanish, English, and Haitian Creole.
A Little Bit of Poison...Will it Kill You?: A manual for lay health educators or community health workers that helps with community education activities about pesticides.
Working with Farm Animals: Comic about how to prevent zoonotic diseases when working with farm animals.
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