Addressing Toxic Stress and Health Care Access in California Farmworker Communities: ACCESS Pilot Project Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Disparities
• Community Health

Background:

• Farmworkers in California face high rates of uninsurance and limited access to rural health resources.
• A significant majority of California farmworkers report Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which can lead to toxic stress and long-term health issues.
• Toxic stress, stemming from ACEs, negatively impacts physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the ACCESS pilot project in addressing toxic stress and improving healthcare access for farmworkers.
• To assess the preparedness of farmworker leaders for community educational outreach.
• To inform policy and programming aimed at enhancing farmworker health and healthcare access.

Main Methods:

• Conducted farmworker leader trainings to assess preparedness for educational outreach.
• Administered a farmworker community health survey to explore health access and intervention impact.
• Utilized a peer-to-peer outreach and education model.

Main Results:

• Farmworker leaders demonstrated increased capacity to engage communities on toxic stress and mitigation strategies.
• The peer-to-peer model effectively built leaders' capacity for community education.
• Farmworker communities experience substantial barriers to affordable healthcare access.

Conclusions:

• A peer-to-peer outreach and education model is effective in empowering farmworker leaders to address toxic stress within their communities.
• Community health surveys reveal significant obstacles to affordable healthcare for farmworkers.
• Findings support the need for targeted programming and policy interventions to improve farmworker health outcomes and access to care.