FW: DUIs among farmworkers

[Guest guest]

This is an interesting conversation on a very complex subject. Despite the

obvious connection, I think it makes sense to look at drinking behaviors of

farmworkers and DUI as related but separate issues. For example, although

there is a significant amount of drinking taking place in the migrant camps here

in

Connecticut for many of the reasons that Louise Tokarsky mentions (in

addition to general feelings of loneliness, alienation, stress, the need for

comraderie, etc), DUIs are uncommon, since few workers have access

to vehicles. Conversely, in areas where access to vehicles is more common,

the often significant distances between farm and town may make it more

likely for farmworkers to be nailed for DUI than they would if they lived

in closer proximity to drinking locales. Given the overall stigma

surrounding migrant farmworkers, however, I agree that we shouldn't

discount the possibility of racial profiling by police, or of exagerated

claims of excessive drinking by area residents and local officials.

R. Duke, Ph.D.

Social Anthropologist

Hispanic Health Council

175 Main Street

Hartford, CT 06106

USA/EUA

860.527.0856

miked@...

www.hispanichealth.com

-----Original Message-----

From: Louise Tokarsky [sMTP:monjagitana@...]

Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 9:59 AM

Subject: Re: [ ] Farmworker Prescription Coverage

This brings up a good point... regarding the other

emails concerning the rate of arrests related to

alcohol use for migrant workers. I swear that it has

to do with levels of depression and stress. I say

this because I saw a lot of drinking in the camps in

Pennsylvania... but almost all of it took place

whenever there were several days of rain in a row (as

the guys weren't allowed to pick tomatoes when it's

wet, therefore there were several days together

without work, and hence without pay). Or, if the crop

had gone bad, or all the harvesting was done and they

were just stuck for a while without work... usually

that's when the drinking started. But especially

during the rainy days. And this is what they did:

they would pull their money together, go to the

grocery store and the liquor store, buy as much meat

and alcohol as they could, and have a giant type of

cookout. They said that they did this whenever

everyone felt depressed about the lack of work... said

it gave them something nice to do. And at these types

of events they would drink a lot. So, if this is any

type of a guess, I would say that anytime a group of

workers is out of work and depressed that they would

drink a lot. Although, this might be something that

is particular to the camps in Pennsylvania, as those

camps at the time I was there were about 33% Mixteco

(people speaking the Aztec dialect of Mixtec, from

Oaxaca). So maybe they are not representative of a

typical camp.

I also think that lack of good health care has a

lot to do with the drinking. Sometimes people who

were really sick and could not receive effective

medical treatment turned to alcohol to deaden constant

physical pain.

Louise Tokarsky-Unda

graduate student of anthropology

--- lilyan@... wrote:

> I can confirm that the situation here in Florida is

> very grim for anyone who is " undocumented " . Not

> only is there no coverage, outside of family

> planning, but even the free clinics in the Tampa

> area stopped accepting them as patients shortly

> after I relocated here in June. Even health

> problems related to family planning such as an

> embedded IUD, or an followup of abnormal Pap smears

> (which one is required to perform to dispense birth

> control) are not covered.

>

> Lily Kay CNM FNP ARNP

>

>

> On Wed, 2 Jan 2002, Louise Tokarsky wrote:

>

> > That's terrible! three years ago, when I was

> living

> > in Pennsylvania, I used to go into the camps to

> give

> > workers rides to clinics, hospitals, pharmacies,

> etc.

> > I provided them with transportation and

> translation

> > services. And at that time the particular group i

> was

> > helping migrated from Florida to Pennsylvania and

> back

> > again. Some of them would get things, like sinus

> > infections, right after leaving Florida but they

> would

> > not seek treatment until three months later (when

> the

> > sinus infection had swollen up their face and had

> > become very dangerous) because they couldn't

> afford to

> > pay the fees for health service and medicine in

> other

> > states. They would actually wait until they got

> into

> > Pennsylvania to look for help. I don't know if

> this

> > group went through North Carolina, and I don't

> know if

> > Pennsylvania's policies for migrant workers (don't

> > ask/don't tell, all expenses covered except dental

> and

> > eye care) have changed. But I do know that if

> North

> > Carolina doesn't change back to their former

> policy a

> > lot of workers will simply stop going for medical

> > help, and they will become very sick. Does anyone

> > know if there is a way to try and convince NC to

> > reverse this change???

> >

> > --- Jo Ellen Hirsch <jehmd@...> wrote:

> > > Colleagues --

> > >

> > > Yesterday I discovered that with end-of-year

> budget

> > > decisions, the State of NC has eliminated the

> > > subsidy that formerly provided prescription

> > > medications to migrant farmworkers for $3.00 per

> > > prescription (through certain pharmacies). I

> > > haven't been in this field (or even in this

> state)

> > > for long. Does anyone have any perspective on

> this

> > > decision? Any action committees? Is this

> happening

> > > in other states?

> > >

> > > Jo Ellen Hirsch - physician, Snow Hill Medical

> > > Center - Snow Hill, NC

> > >

> >

> >

> > __________________________________________________

> >