Kohlbeck, State Partners to Study Immigrant Farmworker Mental Health

Sara Kohlbeck, PhD, MPH, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and director of the Comprehensive Injury Center’s Division of Suicide Research and Healing, has received a one-year grant totaling $12,984 from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Center of Excellence for Total Worker Health. Her project titled, “Immigrant Farmworker Behavioral Health Promotion” will seek to improve behavioral health outcomes and services for immigrant dairy farmworkers (IDFs) in Wisconsin.

The study team plans to work with both dairy farmers and IDFs to help improve understanding and steps for addressing stressors experienced by IDFs through targeted information, resources, and opportunities for peer connections. As part of this work, the team will educate dairy farm employers on the sources and impacts of stressors on their workforce, and specifically among IDFs, along with providing tangible solutions that farmers can implement to reduce unnecessary stress on their employees. Additionally, the team will help dairy farm employers integrate information on behavioral health resources and support into their onboarding activities. They will also work with healthcare providers and others to expand culturally and linguistically relevant behavioral health offerings for IDFs in Wisconsin. Among IDFs, they will work to create opportunities for peer connection across farms.

Kohlbeck will work in partnership with the Wisconsin Departments of Health Services and Agriculture, along with Wisconsin-based Forte Dairy Consulting, the Rural Wisconsin Healthcare Cooperative and Family Health La Clinica (FHLC) to carry out this project. To learn more about the grant, please contact Dr. Kohlbeck at skohlbeck@mcw.edu.