Cultivating Health: An Agenda for Adolescent Farmworkers
Author: De Schmidt, Aurora Comacho
Date Published: 1994
Nearly 20 percent of all migrant farmworkers are adolescents, and as many as half of these may be unaccompanied by their families. These youth clearly have special health and educational needs that require commitment from social institutions and agencies. In June 1991, a conference held in Delray Beach, Florida by the National Coalition of Advocates for Students on health issues affecting adolescent farmworkers was attended by educators and health workers who serve migrant youth, local and national farmworker advocates, and adolescent farmworkers. Participants assessed health needs, identified barriers to addressing those needs, developed priorities, and drafted recommendations. This report presents highlights of the conference, supplemented by interview data collected from service providers and adolescent farmworkers. Conference findings and related interview excerpts are organized around five major areas of concern: (1) substance abuse (drinking and drug use); (2) sexuality (sex education, teenage pregnancy, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, risk factors related to HIV infection, barriers to HIV prevention, and positive programs and practices); (3) mental health (psychosocial stress, family problems, generation gap and cultural gap between parents and teenagers, domestic violence, school attitudes, and dropping out); (4) physical health (nutrition, dental health, and access to health care); and (5) occupational health and safety (child labor, housing, sexual harassment, field sanitation, and pesticides). Extensive recommendations are offered to health care programs, community-based youth programs, local and state education agencies, and national advocacy organizations. Appendices list relevant publications, conference participants, and health service providers interviewed, and detail the size and composition of the U.S. farm labor force.
Date Published: 1994
Nearly 20 percent of all migrant farmworkers are adolescents, and as many as half of these may be unaccompanied by their families. These youth clearly have special health and educational needs that require commitment from social institutions and agencies. In June 1991, a conference held in Delray Beach, Florida by the National Coalition of Advocates for Students on health issues affecting adolescent farmworkers was attended by educators and health workers who serve migrant youth, local and national farmworker advocates, and adolescent farmworkers. Participants assessed health needs, identified barriers to addressing those needs, developed priorities, and drafted recommendations. This report presents highlights of the conference, supplemented by interview data collected from service providers and adolescent farmworkers. Conference findings and related interview excerpts are organized around five major areas of concern: (1) substance abuse (drinking and drug use); (2) sexuality (sex education, teenage pregnancy, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, risk factors related to HIV infection, barriers to HIV prevention, and positive programs and practices); (3) mental health (psychosocial stress, family problems, generation gap and cultural gap between parents and teenagers, domestic violence, school attitudes, and dropping out); (4) physical health (nutrition, dental health, and access to health care); and (5) occupational health and safety (child labor, housing, sexual harassment, field sanitation, and pesticides). Extensive recommendations are offered to health care programs, community-based youth programs, local and state education agencies, and national advocacy organizations. Appendices list relevant publications, conference participants, and health service providers interviewed, and detail the size and composition of the U.S. farm labor force.
