MOULTRIE — The Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce held a luncheon last week to honor nurses and participants within the Farmworker Family Health Program.

Caitlyn Hatcher, the interim president and CEO program services director, opened the luncheon by welcoming the students and thanking the luncheon sponsors.

The Farmworker Family Health Program is celebrating its 30th anniversary, according to Dr. Judith Wold, the Emerita Clinical Professor and distinguished professor for Educational Leadership at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University.

Wold has led the program since it began operating with six students who came to Tifton for clinical experience. The multidisciplinary program grew while she taught at Georgia State University and transitioned to Emory University in 2001.

“It is a true interdisciplinary program, which is very important for healthcare workers to learn how to work. The dental hygienists have really made a difference for these children who normally don’t have fluoride in their water. They teach them how to brush their teeth,” Wold said.

For two weeks, select students from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, University of Georgia School of Pharmacy, Georgia State University and Brenau University Department of Physical Therapy, Clayton State University and Central Georgia Tech College Department of Dental Hygiene provide healthcare services to farm workers and their children in partnership with the Ellenton Clinic, which is located about 10 miles from Moultrie.

“The Ellenton Clinic is our partner in the community. They are federally funded to serve migrant farmworkers and their families. We partner with them each year. They’re the medical home for the farmworkers during the year and they follow up on the referrals,” Dr. Laura Layne, the director of Women’s Health at the Georgia Department of Public Health and co-director of the Farmworker Family Health Program, said in an interview.

Layne explained that the importance of the program not only helps the patients but gives a learning opportunity for students to work inter-professionally and a cultural immersion experience while providing healthcare for mobile farmworkers.

The Farmworker Family Health Program continues to grow adding students from vital healthcare fields. About 120 nurses, faculty and volunteers with skills relating to primary and episodic healthcare – meaning occurring occasionally and at irregular intervals – pharmaceuticals, dental and physical therapy work hand in hand with the patients.

Dr. Erin Ferranti, the director of the Farmworker Family Health Program, made a presentation sharing the program updates to local residents at the luncheon. During her time, Ferranti recognized several program contributors like Jeff Horne, the Colquitt County School District assistant director of Federal Programs and Migrant Education, the Ellenton Clinic, Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center (SOWEGA-AHEC) and local sponsors like the Hampton Inn of Moultrie.

The nurses are currently serving about 370 students enrolled in the local summer school at R.B. Wright Elementary School at their day clinic from 8 a.m. to noon. Throughout their clinic, they assist with completing the Georgia Department of Public Health Form 3300 which allows children to be enrolled in Georgia public schools, she said.

Ferranti explained that the nurse numbers have decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but are gradually increasing again.

“We are hosted by a different church every day for lunch. We’re so grateful. We start the clinic at 8 in the morning and we end [our] night clinic after midnight. We don’t get a lot of sleep when we’re here and to be nourished during the day with these wonderful meals is so wonderful for our team,” she said.

The night patients are typically males, ages 18 to their 30s, who reside in surrounding counties such as Colquitt, Cook, Brooks and Tift. The nurses set up stations at the patients’ residences for the night clinics and begin intake examinations. Ferranti named physical therapy as one of the most popular stations in the night clinics.

The nurses have examined patients with extremely high blood sugar levels, major infections, pesticide poisoning, foot fungus and heat illness or heat strokes from the local climate. During the examinations, the nurses teach the patients how to determine when to seek medical attention and how to recognize certain illnesses.

“We do need more resources. There are not enough mental health resources in South Georgia. Mental health is the big one, [and] we need dental partners. There are a lot of needs in the community. We love being here and we love doing this work,” Ferranti said.

She announced the program was awarded a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Health Resources & Services Administration, which will increase the health profession within underserved areas like rural communities.

“COVID taught us a lot about the importance of telemedicine and telehealth and bringing care to where people are. This grant is to train nurses to function in a mobile van and mobile clinic,” she explained.

The program will subcontract with the Ellenton Clinic to purchase a van and use another $125,000 grant, provided by The Phillips Foundation, to outfit the van with medical equipment.

Ferranti concluded the presentation by saying, “It’s just an amazing grant. We’re here doing the two weeks and we always wanted to do more. We want to be in this community more and to teach our students how to provide care in rural settings. We’ll be able to send students more year-round and be able to extend services out to the farms. We’re going to be in your community [more] and we’re super excited about it.”