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About

Community Health Workers

CHWs might be known by other names, such as promotores de salud, coaches, lay health advisors, community health representatives, peer mentors, or peer navigators. By these names or simply Community Health Worker (CHW), the person is a trusted member of the community with a passion for helping others prevent or manage disease or other physical/behavioral health issues. They help bridge cultural, linguistic, knowledge and literacy differences among individuals, families, communities and providers. They help improve communications involving community members and agency or institutional professionals. CHWs understand and share information about available resources, and support planning and evaluation to improve health services.

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Studies have shown that CHWs have a positive impact on patients’ keeping appointments, taking their medications, reducing risk by improving access to primary care and preventative services, and by helping individuals manage chronic conditions.  While some CHWs may have minimal formal training in medicine or health, they tend to have an intimate knowledge of their communities and local resources.  CHWs use that knowledge and passion to help individuals overcome barriers to care such as those associated with language, culture, transportation, scheduling, and finances. They are a good neighbor. 

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CHWs fill a multiple of roles, from coordinating care to community capacity building. They are advocates, sometimes speaking up on behalf of their clients and their communities within their own agencies, with other service providers, and to support changes in public policies.  More importantly, CHWs support clients and communities in raising their own voices to create meaningful changes – including changes in public policies – that influence health and well-being. (Berthold, 2009)

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CHWs have historically been employed by community-based organizations and social agencies, although they are increasingly being used in clinical settings, such as federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), health departments, and hospitals (Malcarney et al. 2017). They provide a variety of services, which are mostly aimed at bridging the gap between patients and the health care system but also include social supports.

 

These may include: â€‹

  • health promotion, wellness coaching, and self-management education

  • cultural mediation (e.g., communicating norms and perspectives) 

  • interpretation or translation services

  • health system navigation (e.g., scheduling appointments, accompanying beneficiaries to office visits)

  • advocacy on behalf of patients and their families

  • outreach before appointments, including appointment reminders

  • outreach to ensure adherence to treatments and medications

  • home visits

  • individual, community, and environmental assessments

  • arranging transportation

  • making connections to community resources or social services, and

  • providing care coordination and case management

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, CHWs took on roles conducting outreach to community members who isolated in their homes, providing education on prevention measures, connecting people with COVID-19 testing and treatment resources, and those experiencing financial hardship with social services (CDC 2021, Peretz et al. 2020). CHWs have also participated in community-focused vaccine education and outreach efforts (Cohen Marill 2021).

Community Health Workers

Pennsylvania Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) regions offer a 100-hour training program designed to provide the core competencies needed for work in community-based and inpatient settings. This training also provides comprehensive information about accessing healthcare and other social/community resources which are specific to the region where the training takes place, or hosted from if virtual. Core modules in this training program include:

  • Community Health Worker Introduction & History

  • Communication, Networking & Conflict

  • Boundaries

  • Personal Safety

  • Building and Maintaining Relationships

  • HIPAA Privacy Rule

  • Health Literacy

  • Documentation​

 

Additional Modules

  • Mental Health First Aid

  • CPR/AED/First Aid

  • Mandated Reporter

  • Harm Reduction

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  • Chronic Disease

  • Motivational Interviewing

  • Preventive Care

  • Benefits Check up

  • Becoming a Healthier You

  • Accident Prevention

  • Opioid Brief Intervention

  • Every Smoker, Every Time

The curriculum utilizes various learning styles which include lecture, discussion, hands-on activities, guest speakers, specialized training, and student presentations. 

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For more information on CHW training classes, visit Education & Training. For more info on your local AHEC, visit Regions and select the area where you are located. 

About the Collaborative

Healthcare and community organizations are recognizing the critical role CHWs play in improving a care team’s ability to attend to the social, physical, and mental wellbeing of the whole person. However, to build effective, sustainable, and equitable interventions, we need also to be aware of and address the many stressors and realities of CHWs, including:

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  • Work overload

  • Inadequate sustainable funding

  • Lack of care team integration

  • Feelings of isolation

  • Lack of proper supervision

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  • Power

  • Lack of autonomy

  • Lack of consistent training

  • High rates of burnout​​

With often only one CHW in each clinic or organization, a sense of belonging is vital for self-care. This of course can take place within the organization, and the collaborative is meant to complement this, not replace. CHWs are able to connect with other CHWs through an online forum/message board, attend virtual education and support sessions with other CHWs across the state, or attend an annual community health worker conference hosted by Temple University. 

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Health centers and community organizations also have the opportunity to receive and offer support by making sure CHWs are provided with adequate training and support with certification, effective methods for addressing burnout, and assessing the effectiveness and inclusivity of of their interdisciplinary team-based care model. There is the opportunity to connect with similarly sized organization who have, now or in the past, experienced challenges around these issues (or others, really). 

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To learn more about funding-focused advocacy, sustainability and legislative efforts across Pennsylvania, visit Sustainability

About PA Area Health Education Center

The mission of the PA AHEC (Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center) is to help communities meet their primary health care needs by creating a statewide infrastructure bridging community and academic resources in order to:

 

  • Facilitate the recruitment and retention of primary care providers in underserved communities through educational and training programs.

  • Develop an information and communication network to provide consultation, technical assistance, education and other professional support for community-based primary care practitioners.

  • Increase the number of individuals from minority and underserved communities and populations who enter primary care and allied health professions.

  • Evaluate and assess the public health needs of communities within and among the regions and provide innovative, multi-disciplinary responses to those needs.

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PA AHEC is committed to becoming a national leader in the effort to enhance the health status of underserved communities. We intend to build on the established solid foundation through the cooperative efforts of regional AHECs by strengthening our partnership with community, government and educational agencies and institutions, and by expanding our collaboration with interdisciplinary health care provider groups throughout the state. The PA AHEC Program’s strategic plan includes demonstrating the value of its unique role in significantly increasing access to health services and resources within currently underserved areas of the state. In so doing, we will be recognized as a National Model and as a source of Best Practices for recruiting and retaining primary care practitioners into underserved areas and developing effective community-based health promotion programs.

Pennsylvania AHEC

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This website is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $2,075,290 with 50% funded by HRSA/HHS and $1,037,645 funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and nongovernment source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

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