Little is known about the occupational health experience of low income, minority populations including where and how much they work, the hazards they face, and the incidence of work-related injuries and illnesses. Information is especially elusive for these populations within the contingent workforce of temporary, part-time, and contract workers, who may not have access to traditional workplace interventions that protect workers on the job, or to benefits such as workers' compensation. Community health centers (CHC) provide a point-of-access to low income, minority populations not reached through conventional approaches to occupational safety and health In Massachusetts, 46 community health centers provided nearly 3 million visits for more than 628,000 people in need of health and social services in 1998. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which both funds CHC services, and licenses CHC facilities, is uniquely positioned to collaborate with these centers to identify and address the occupational health needs of underserved populations. The purpose of the proposed project is to evaluate the feasibility of collecting occupational health information through CHCs in order to document the health and safety experience of low income, minority workers and promote prevention of workplace illness/injury through CHC-based intervention activities.
The specific aims i nclude: 1) To develop a survey instrument and protocol to collect demographic, employment, and occupational health information through patient interviews conducted by community health workers at CHCs in Massachusetts; 2) To conduct the survey and analyze data to describe the occupational health and safety experience of low income, minority populations receiving services at CHCs and to evaluate this method of data collection; 3) To compare employment and occupational health data collected at CHCs with available data on low income, minority populations within Massachusetts to identify potential biases in existing data systems; 4) To provide site-specific feedback and technical assistance to CHCs to increase awareness of the occupational health needs of the communities they serve and to promote local prevention activities; and 5) To assess the extent to which information about employment is routinely collected at CHCs to determine if these data can be used or improved to conduct occupational health surveillance at the community level.
