This coastal valley was famous by novelist John Steinbeck is sometimes known with love as “American salad”, although planting and harvesting is mainly done by Mexican immigrants.
For Taylor Farms, an important global supplier of packaged salads and cut vegetables, this has made a reasonable place to pioneer in a new kind of health care for its workforce, which could be widely used in the era of smartphone: an application.
The company is one of the first customers of a start -up called Misalud, which connects Spanish employees Taylor Farms to doctors and mental health therapists in Mexico. Providers are not licensed in the US and cannot prescribe medicines, but instead serve as health coaches who can distribute advice and work with a US -based doctor if needed.
Amy Taylor, who has led the company’s wellness initiative since 2014 and is the bride of Bruce Taylor founder, said that some 5,600 of the 6,400 Taylor Farms employees who work where Misalud is available, have registered for the Application and 2,300 used the application at least once. The service is free for employees and up to three family members.
Amy Taylor said the company hopes that the implementation, which is part of a wider well -being, could help employees remain healthier while maintaining health care and other labor costs. It plans full evaluation as soon as the program has come into force for two years.
The health of farmers is a major concern about the state economy of the state. A 2022 study led by researchers at the University of California, evaluated the health of more than 1,200 farmers and found that 37% of men and 47% of women reported that they had at least one years, including joint situations such as diabetes, High blood pressure and stress.
Taylor said that its company employees, ranging from field workers and drivers to retail and office packaging staff, reflect the findings of the study. He said that sovereign workers’ health concerns include obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and mental health.
“These are the people who feed America healthy foods,” Taylor said for company employees. “They should also be healthy.”
Misalud – or “my health” – was the inspiration of Bismarck Lepe, a serial entrepreneur and a Stanford graduate, who greets a family of immigrant farmers. Until the age of 6, when his family settled in Oxnard, California, they would travel between Mexico, California and the Washington State to harvest fruit. He saw that the family and friends often delayed health care until they could return to Mexico, because the American system was very difficult to navigate and insurance coverage is very expensive or difficult to find.
“My mother still prefers to take her health care in Mexico,” Lepe said. “It’s easier for her.”
Lepe and co -founders Wendy Johansson and Cindy Blanco Ochoa launched Misalud Health in 2021 with $ 5 million from a business capital fund supported by Melinda French Gates, which focuses on social impact investment. Since then it has added Samsung Next and Ulu Ventures as investors.
Misalud started offering consultations with Mexican doctors for people who occupied the application, Johansson said. But people are eager to find the application, download it and register for the program itself were not the ones who needed it the most and in 2023 the company rotates to offer its services to companies as the benefit of employees. (People can still use it.)
In addition to Taylor Farms, the company counts the city of Lynwood, California between about twelve other customers, according to Johansson. Misalud had that almost 40% of employees served by her platform say that without the application they would ignore their health concerns or waited until they were traveling to Mexico to see a doctor.
Paul Brown, Professor of Finance Health, who contributed to the health study of the University farmers, warned that telecommunications consultations are insufficient substitute for personal care or specialist care. However, “to the extent that these types of programs can connect people to more standardized care, this is good,” he added.
Brown said Misalud’s approach could be more effective if policies have changed to allow Mexican doctors to more easily cure patients in the US a California program launched in 2002 allows Mexican doctors to travel to the Salinas valley and to Other severe Latinidal communities and treat patients, but cross -border telemedicine, even among states, remains limited.
However, Taylor Farms employees say the application was useful. Rosa “Rosita” Flores, a line in charge of the company’s retail companies, said she decided to try Misalud after their partners were running.
A recent well -being company of the company, partly funded by Misalud, warned it of the importance of monitoring blood sugar levels and blood pressure, so he recorded an appointment in the application to discuss it. “The app is very easy to use,” he told Spanish. When she had to cancel a video conversation after her daughter got sick, the health coaches followed the text.
Supporters of cross -border medicine say that approach helps the bridge linguistic and cultural obstacles in health care. Almost half of all US immigrants-two-thirds of which are indigenous Spanish speakers-have limited proficiency in English and research has repeatedly shown that linguistic obstacles often discourage people from searching for care.
For example, Alfredo Alvarez, a Misalud health coach, who is a licensed doctor in Mexico, pointed out the faith El mal de ojoOr the “bad eye” – the idea that a jealous or jealous look from someone can cause harm, especially to children. An American doctor may prevent the meaning, but he understands.
“This is not uncommon here,” he said of Mexico. “It’s a belief in traditional medicine.”
It is not that Alvarez encourages his sociallyor members, to pass an egg over the child or to make the child wear a special bracelet – traditional ways of diagnosis and treatment El mal de ojo. On the contrary, it recognizes their traditions and directs them to medicine based on evidence.
Misalud coaches can try to break the stereotypes as well. For example, Alvarez said, a Mexican respect for Machismo can translate into the idea that “men do not make a doctor visits”. In the meantime, he said, women can overlook their health to prioritize the needs of other family members.
Coaches also try to remove the mark around the search for mental health treatment. “A lot of us socially They were extremely uncomfortable with or cautious mental health professionals, “said Rubén Benavides Crespo, Misalud mental health coach, who is an authorized psychologist in Mexico.
The app tries to break, making it easy to book a counseling appointment and ask questions such as whether someone has a sleep problem, rather than invoking more worrying or possibly stigmatizing terms such as anxiety or depression.
Misalud’s representatives report that the application saw a 50% increase in mental health applications after the November presidential election. A more common demand, however, is counseling sadness, often following the loss of a loved one.
“Loss requires adjustment,” Benavides said.
For Sam Chaidez, business manager for a Taylor Farms location in Gonzales, Misalud is a welcome addition to weight management. The son of the field workers, Chaidez graduated from UC-Davis and returned to the Salinas valley to work for the company in 2007.
In 2019, Chaidez, a young parent at that time, began to understand the risk of diabetes and other health problems due to Taylor Farms’ well -being program. Through nutrition and exercise and, more recently, Misalud training, Chaidez has thrown 150 pounds.
Chaidez encourages colleagues to walk with him at lunch and credits the Misalud coaches to help him keep weight away and stay healthy. “It was a great help,” he said.
