title: Addressing health disparities in highly specialized minority populations: case study of Mexican Mennonite farmworkers.
abstract: The Kansas Statewide Farmworker Health Program (KSFHP) has developed a unique set of culturally competent health interventions in response to the pressing public health needs of the state's underserved farmworker population. Key among these are its health education and translation efforts on behalf of the fast-growing Low German-speaking Mexican Mennonite farmworker population. Linguistic, religious, and cultural values have created unique and complex health disparities and barriers to care that can be broken down only through innovative approaches. KSFHP first conducted a health needs assessment survey of the farmworker population in 2003, which indicated prenatal care practices as a significant health disparity, especially among the Low German-speaking Mexican Mennonite population. In response, KSFHP successfully lobbied the state health department to implement a new standard of health behavior data collection that includes primary language data as a method of delineating population subgroups, making Kansas one of the first two states in the country to collect this information. KSFHP also developed culturally competent Low German-language recordings on health topics such as prenatal care in accordance with the information delivery needs of the Low German-speaking Mexican Mennonite farmworker population. Currently, a pilot program is in progress that offers additional outreach, health education, and interpretation, among other services. The work of the KSFHP has significant implications for further research into health disparities, specialized minority populations, and culturally competent data collection methods.
authors.affiliation: Kansas Statewide Farmworker Health Program, Office of Local and Rural Health, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, USA.
authors.forename: Cyndi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Treaster
authors.forename: Suzanne R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Hawley
authors.forename: Angelia M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Paschal
authors.forename: Craig A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Molgaard
authors.forename: Theresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: St Romain
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000383:Agriculture; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007615:Kansas; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000193:education*; D020380:Needs Assessment; D016272:Occupational Health; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016730:Program Development; D033303:Protestantism; D011635:Public Health Administration; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013664:Teaching Materials; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000145:classification* / Q000193:education; D014481:United States