Series Focuses on Health Issues Farmworkers Face in California
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THE CHCF WEEKLY
January 10, 2023
California is home to more than half a million farmworkers who grow the food Americans need to live healthy lives. Yet, those same farmworkers face enormous barriers in meeting their own health and health care needs.
This fall, a reporting team from Capital & Main documented farmworkers’ health conditions and their difficulties accessing vital care. The special series, Ill Harvest, examines a range of topics, including:
The grassroots nature of health care in rural farming communities
How California’s historic Medi-Cal expansion will impact farmworkers
What health clinics do differently to serve indigenous farmworkers
The mental health toll of farmwork in places where treatment is scarce
Support for the series is part of CHCF’s work to advance Latino/x health equity in California.
Ninety percent of California’s farmworkers are immigrants, and more than half are undocumented.
From the Blog
Melora Simon A review of what CalAIM has already undertaken and a look over the horizon at what is still to come. |
Kathryn Phillips Equity is at the center of future quality improvement work in California. |
2022 Highlights
The CHCF Blog covered topics including preparing for the end of the Public Health Emergency, reviving paid sick leave for essential workers, and the changing health care workforce. Read the 10 most popular blog posts of 2022.
CHCF readers were eager to learn about CalAIM reform, health equity, and behavioral health. Explore our top 10 publications of 2022.
The top three resources and programs of 2022 were:
1. Primary Care Matters
2. Focus on CalAIM
3. Advancing Black Health Equity
Recent Releases
By 2030, one in four Californians will be age 60 or older. This population will require increasing support, yet experts predict shortages of between 600,000 and 3.2 million direct care workers by 2030. Two new resources provide background on the direct care workforce.
This project, which sought to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates by leveraging trusted relationships between care managers and medically fragile clients in Medi-Cal, offers insights into challenges and opportunities to improve the delivery of preventive health care among similarly vulnerable populations.
Total health insurance enrollment in 2021, the second pandemic year, increased by 1.4% (474,000) to 34.3 million enrollees. This compares to 3.3% growth in 2020.
Partner Spotlight
Katherine Haynes, CHCF senior program officer, and Wynton Sims, UCSF medical student, are featured on KQED's Forum. The interview highlights the findings of the Listening to Black Californians study and the systemic solutions presented by Haynes and Sims to support health equity for Black Californians.
Stories That Caught Our Attention
- American Life Expectancy Is Now at Its Lowest in Nearly Two Decades (NPR)
The expected life span of someone born in the US is now 76.4 years — the shortest it has been in nearly two decades.
- California’s Only Historically Black University Aims to Solve Black Doctor Shortage (CalMatters)
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Sciences (CDU), the only historically Black university in California, will launch a new MD program next year. The goal is to train doctors of color to help underserved communities in a state where only 3% of physicians are Black. Related: In a 2019 interview with The CHCF Blog, CDU President David Carlisle, MD, PhD, discussed his goals to build and diversify the health care workforce and to expand access to care in underserved areas of California.
- California Senate’s New Health Chair to Prioritize Mental Health and Homelessness (California Healthline)
State Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Stockton Democrat and licensed social worker, will lead the Senate’s influential health committee. Expect a more urgent focus on expanding mental health services and moving people experiencing homelessness into housing and treatment. Related: Read about the Housing for Health program run by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services on The CHCF Blog.
- New Medi-Cal Benefit’s Goal Is Joyful Births, Healthy Babies to California Families with Low Incomes (LAist)
California is one of six states expanding access to doulas through Medicaid. It took the state more than a year to hammer out the details, revealing the tension between California’s health care bureaucracy and community-based workers. Related: In this blog post, CHCF and philanthropic partners issue a call to action for a multi-pronged approach to reversing stark inequities in maternal and infant mortality rates among Black families.
- Latina/x Health Care Worker Shares Pandemic Experience (CALÓ NEWS)
A community health worker explains why stepping up and informing the Los Angeles community about fighting COVID-19 is so important. Veronique Diaz, who grew up without access to medical care and had no awareness of help in the community, is buoyed by the work. Related: CHCF recently released the results of a statewide survey of community health workers/promotores to better understand the characteristics and perspectives of this critical part of the health care workforce.
- Surge in Remote Working Due to COVID-19 Fuels Record Employment for People with Disabilities (Los Angeles Times – paywall)
After generations of being overlooked and sidelined in the job market, Americans with disabilities are enjoying an employment boom. Widespread acceptance of remote working during the pandemic and an overall labor shortage have opened up historic opportunities for some of the nation’s most skilled and underutilized workers.
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