Mackenzie Waters of Newnan, Georgia, recently joined an 18-person Valdosta State University team to support Emory University School of Medicine’s 2024 South Georgia Farmworker Health Project in Lowndes County. It was one of her final hands-on learning experiences before she officially earned her Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy in late July.

While medical teams from Emory University, as well as Mercer University, cared for the patients’ bodies, dealing with everything from diseases of the skin and eyes to musculoskeletal issues and high blood pressure, the student-therapists from VSU cared for their minds. They were supervised by Jessica Millican, clinical coordinator, and Dr. Hoa Nguyen, associate professor, both licensed marriage and family therapists from VSU’s Marriage and Family Therapy program.

“We had 16 Marriage and Family Therapy students collaborating with an interdisciplinary treatment team, including physician assistant students, nursing students, physical therapy students, interpreters, community partners, and others, to deliver essential medical care to farmworkers and their families,” Millican said.

The South Georgia Farmworker Health Project set up makeshift clinics for several hours at a time at various farm camps across Lowndes County, bringing care directly to the farmworkers, an effort to increase their access to care. Each clinic was outside, beneath tents that offered volunteers little relief from the intense summer heat, but just like the migrant farmworker picking fruits and vegetables during agriculture’s peak summer season, none of them complained. They had a job to do, and they did it.

Waters and her fellow Blazers conducted brief, single-visit therapy sessions with farmworkers and their families, helping them addresses a variety of issues, such as homesickness, depression, stress, grief, anxiety, family problems, and more. For those who needed additional counseling or therapeutic services, she connected them with community mental health resources, including FamilyWorks, a VSU-based brief therapy center serving all ages seven days a week.

“When I got to the farmworker clinic each day, I helped unload the car and set up the tent, table, and chairs,” she said. “When the clinic was prepared to start, I was paired with a physician assistant student from Emory or Mercer, and we were then paired with a client. While the medical students worked with the client, I listened for demographic information and any mental health concerns. I filled out a sheet of paper with this information and wrote a confidential case note after talking to the client. Sometimes this included a more private conversation after their physical checkup.”

For Waters, this was her first time working with the Emory University School of Medicine’s South Georgia Farmworker Health Project, and she was honored to help care for the gracious, hard-working people who often work sunup to sundown to ensure food makes it from the farm to the table. 

“I was so excited to get to know each person and their story,” she shared. “Though I do not speak Spanish, it was rewarding to be able to help them heal, process, and give them coping skills. It has inspired me to do work like this alongside working in a private practice.”

Waters has already asked if she can return next year and volunteer as a VSU Marriage and Family Therapy alumna.

“The South Georgia Farmworker Health Project is one of many hands-on learning experiences available to our students,” Millican said. “This collaborative service learning endeavor offers a unique setting for practice. During the farmworker clinic, students step outside the traditional clinic environment and into the farmworker’s world, connecting with them directly in the fields and farming communities where they live and work. This immersion allows students to engage deeply with farmworker culture and collaborate with medical providers to offer essential care to a medically underserved population. Additionally, students gain valuable experience providing single-session therapy services and supporting individuals who are not traditional clients.”

The South Georgia Farmworker Health Project was started in 1996 in collaboration with the Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center in Albany and the Georgia Farmworker Health Program, State Office of Primary Care. It was initially held in Echols and Lowndes counties only, serving roughly 150 people, but two years later it was expanded to include a week in Decatur County. It is designed to provide care to a medically underserved and economically important population in Georgia and to increase awareness and competency of health care providers and students in working with this population, according to Emory officials. It now serves close to 2,500 people each year.

VSU’s Marriage and Family Therapy program has worked with the project for about a decade.