Welcome To CHW Workforce Development, an organization built by CHW’s for CHW’s. #chwworkforce
We at CHW-WFD incorporates current research and uses feedback from administrators, supervisors, CHWs, hospital staff, community members, and clients involved in the Workforce Development of Community Health Workers.
The CHW model of care is centered on a philosophy of peer support. The key strength of CHWs is their intimate knowledge of the environments and experiences of their clients. Their expertise comes from lived experience. That experience makes it possible for CHWs to reach and engage individuals who may otherwise not respond to health care professionals, no matter how good the intent or persistence of outreach efforts.
Our focus is to connect individuals experiencing perpetual poverty who are also high users of hospital and clinical services with Community Health Workers (CHWs) in order to increase utilization of primary care and reduce unnecessary utilization of emergency services.
CHWs support the work of CHW-WFD projects by honing in on the challenges, strengths, and motivations of their clients and their daily lives. Not bound by the four walls of the clinic or a focus on specific diagnoses or treatments, CHWs work to eliminate barriers for their clients through community education, accompaniment, and coordination of enabling services.
Tasks performed by CHWs are diverse; however, CHWs in the clinical/community center setting are most often involved in case coordination/management, outreach, and enrollment into care. CHWs are also able to assist their peers in accessing and utilizing the often-convoluted health care systems.
People experiencing poverty are among the most frequent and costly of health care users. One large scale study supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Health Research and Quality found that single men and women experiencing poverty visit the emergency department 9 to 12 times more (respectively) than their housed counterparts.
In the hospital setting, individuals experiencing poverty are often treated for their acute illness or injury but not provided the wrap around supports needed for long-term wellness. What’s more, individuals experiencing poverty are often provided with hospital discharge instructions that are difficult to follow while living on the streets.
Studies researching post-hospital transitions for low-income populations found that patients often leave hospitals feeling powerless due to socioeconomic factors, misalignment of patient and care team goals, competing priorities, socioeconomic constraints affecting their ability to perform recommended behaviors, abandonment after discharge, and loss of self-efficacy resulting from failure to perform recommended behaviors.
Email: chwworkforce@gmail.com
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