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Media Releases
Missouri Farmworkers' Arthritis Awareness Heightened
Columbia, Mo. (September 12, 2006) Migrant farmworkers in Missouri no longer see arthritis as a part of the normal aging process that one can do little about. Instead, they are now actively seeking information and ways to prevent the onset of arthritis, and, if they already have it, ways to manage life and work successfully.
This is a change some rural health researchers happily noticed from a round of focus group meetings with farmworkers and health care outreach workers ("promotoras") , from the farmlands of southeastern Missouri in mid-August.
"Four or five years ago, migrant farmworkers didn't see arthritis as an urgent problem or concern. They treated the aches and pains of arthritis as something they had to live with while they age," recalls Karen Funkenbusch, a research associate and rural safety and health specialist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, who interviewed 30 Hispanic/Latino farmworkers and seven promotoras during a two-day visit in Kennett, Missouri.
"But now," continues the researcher, "the farmworkers are telling us 'I don't have to have arthritis as I age!' and they also started to believe if they change the way they work and live, they could have a better control of their arthritis and other health problems. "
Due to the demand farmwork places on the joints, arthritis is one of the most common disabilities afflicting the nation's three million farmworkers. Among them, some 85 percent are minorities. Barriers of language, culture, and education, as well as lack of insurance and access to health care, make migrant farmworkers particularly vulnerable to the effects of arthritis. Experts estimate between 1 million and 1.7 million migrant and seasonal farmworkers suffer from arthritis.
In order to help farmworkers better prevent and cope with arthritis, the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (MARRTC) started an initiative called "Farmers with Arthritis" several years ago that delivers arthritis-related information directly to migrant and seasonal workers, farmers, and ranchers.
"Obviously, this program, along with other similar efforts we've been doing is paying off," says Funkenbusch, who's been working closely with MARRTC, AgrAbility, Regional Arthritis Centers, the National Center for Farmworker Health, and the regional extension specialists from the University of Missouri-Columbia, to help farmers and ranchers with disabilities remain productive.
As awareness of arthritis and commitment to overall health increases among the farmworkers, Funkenbusch says "the good time" to promote public health among these underserved groups has come.
"What I have to do and I'm doing now is to make the best of their eagerness to learn, and take my knowledge to someone coming from the same culture as our migrant farmworkers do," says Funkenbusch.
Funkenbusch says the "promotoras" play a critical role in taking our arthritis information and putting it into a cultural-sensitive format that is easily acceptable and understandable for farmworkers who might hold a very different cultural belief about how a disease, such as arthritis should be treated.
What Programs in Missouri Are Available to Farmers with Disabilities?
Arthritis Prevention and Self-management for Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers:
Uses "promotoras" to deliver information about arthritis prevention and arthritis self-management directly to migrant workers and translate the medical jargon into an understandable and culturally appropriate language. This national outreach program consists of partners from MARRTC, Agricultural Engineering Extension from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and National Center for Farmworker Health.
http://marrtc.missouri.edu/research/summaries.html#project4
Missouri AgrAbility Project (MAP): Provides training, site visits, on-farm assessments, technical assistance, and disseminates information directly to farmers, ranchers, farmworkers and their family members. This is a statewide program funded by USDA created to assist those employed in agriculture and who have chronic diseases, disabilities, or disorders.
https://fsb.missouri.edu/agrability/new/
Regional Arthritis Centers (RAC): Exists as part of a statewide network run by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior ServiceÕs Arthritis and Osteoporosis Program. The seven RACs in Missouri offer a variety of services from self-management and exercise programs to community resource referrals.
http://marrtc.missouri.edu/community/regional.html
National Center for Farmworker Health (NCFH): Is a private, not-for-profit organization located in Buda, Texas, whose mission is to improve the health status of farmworker families through appropriate application of human, technical, and information resources. Their mission is accomplished by providing information, services, and products to a network of more than 500 migrant health centers in the United States as well as other organizations and individuals serving the farmworker population.
http://www.ncfh.org/
The Missouri Arthritis Research Rehabilitation and Training Center (MARRTC) was established in 1971 at the University of Missouri-Columbia Arthritis Center. MARRTC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (H133B031120) and is the only federally funded arthritis rehabilitation research and training center in the country.
As part of the MU Health Communication Research Center (HCRC), MARRTC's mission is to become a national leader in the areas of disability management and communication, improve the quality of life and promote independent living among people who have arthritis and arthritic conditions. MARRTC's core message is "Disability is everyone's issue."
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