Enhancing the Utility of Community Health Workers in Disaster Preparedness, Resiliency, and Recovery

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-183
Author(s):  
Keith Nicholls ◽  
J. Steven Picou ◽  
Janel Lowman
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Educational Outreach ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Response And Recovery

ABSTRACT As part of the Deepwater Horizon Medical Settlement, the University of South Alabama's Coastal Resource & Resiliency Center is charged with preparing Community Health Workers (CHWs) to serve in areas affected by the oil spill. The immediate objective of this effort is to enhance primary and behavioral healthcare capacity and health literacy, especially among disadvantaged and underserved populations. A review of previous research confirms the utility of CHWs in accomplishing this objective. Findings further suggest that CHWs could play a crucial role in the area of oil spill response and recovery, but fulfilling this role will require appropriate training. In this paper, we provide an outline of CHW training that includes: 1) educational outreach to enhance literacy and promote preparedness; 2) identification and management of diseases and conditions associated with or exacerbated by such technological disasters; and 3) essential elements in the recognition and referral of psychosocial problems associated with the oil spill experience. Community Health Workers have great potential to contribute in the area of oil spill response and recovery by motivating maximum preparedness, speeding recovery, and increasing resiliency for future spills. It is important that institutional actors involved in the area recognize this potential and contribute to its realization.

scholarly journals 3125 Acceptability of a Narrative Video to Enhance the Use of Genetic Counseling in Latina Women at-risk of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer: Community Health Worker’s Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (s1) ◽  
pp. 80-81
Author(s):  
Alejandra Hurtado de Mendoza ◽  
Kristi Graves ◽  
Sara Gómez-Trillos ◽  
Minna Song ◽  
Lyndsay Anderson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Community Outreach ◽  
The United States ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
Patient Navigators ◽  
Latino Community

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: The goal of the study was to assess the acceptability of a culturally targeted narrative video and identify potential avenues for dissemination in a sample of bilingual community health workers who provide services to the Latino community in the United States. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We piloted the video in a sample of bilingual community health workers who provide services to Latinos (n=31). After watching the video, participants filled out a survey. The survey captured sociodemographic data (e.g. education), their role and experience working with Latinos (e.g. patient navigators), acceptability of the video (e.g. general satisfaction, length of the video, amount of information), and potential dissemination (e.g., dissemination channels, preferred settings to watch the video, and preferred context). Three open ended questions captured information about how the video could be useful for the Latino community, what they liked the most from the video, and suggestions for improvement. Data was entered in SPSS version 25. We used descriptive statistics to analyze the survey, and content analysis to summarize the feedback from the open-ended questions. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Participants (n = 31) had an average age of 46 years (SD=16.99), all self-identified as Hispanic or Latinos, most were female (90.3%), and worked as patient navigators (29%) or community outreach workers (25.8%). The video’s general acceptability was very high. Participants reported high ratings for overall satisfaction, how much they liked the video, enjoyed it, and considered it to be interesting (all means >9.6, range 1-10). Most participants strongly agreed or agreed that the length was adequate (80.7%), that the information presented was very helpful (100%), that the video could be useful for the Latina community (96.8%), and that they would share the video with women at-risk of HBOC (100%). The highest endorsed channels for dissemination were Facebook (90.3) and YouTube (87.1%). The highest endorsed settings were community centers (100%), churches (96.8%), and hospitals (80.6%). Most participants (90.3%) considered that the best context to watch the video would be with relatives, followed by watching with other women at-risk of HBOC (71.0%), friends (71.0%), and lastly by oneself (41.9%) DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: This study represents a multidisciplinary approach to intervention development that aims to reduce well-documented knowledge gaps and disparities in the use of GCRA among at-risk Latinas. A culturally targeted video has the potential to reach underserved populations with low literacy and English proficiency and it can be widely disseminated. The video was well received by community health workers who reported high acceptability. These findings are promising given that community health workers could play a key role in the dissemination of the video if it is proven to be efficacious.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) as Innovators

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28
Author(s):  
Tyler Prentiss ◽  
John Zervos ◽  
Mohan Tanniru ◽  
Joseph Tan
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Grant Writing ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Context Of Learning

Community health workers (CHWs) have a longstanding role in improving the health and well-being of underserved populations in resource-limited settings. CHWs are trusted in the communities they serve and are often able to see through solutions on community challenges that outside persons cannot. Notwithstanding, such solutions often must be low-cost, easily implementable, and permit knowledge gaps among CHWs to be filled via appropriate training. In this sense, use of cost-effective information technology (IT) solutions can be key to increasing access to knowledge for these community agents. This paper highlights insights gleaned from a pilot study performed in Detroit, Michigan with a group of CHWs in basic grant-writing training via an e-platform, the Community Health Innovator Program (CHIP). The results are discussed within the context of learning theory. It is concluded that e-platforms are necessary for CHWs to leverage knowledge from multiple sources in an adaptive environment towards addressing ever-evolving global health challenges.

The Utility of Community Health Workers in Disaster Preparedness, Recovery, and Resiliency

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Nicholls ◽  
J. Steven Picou ◽  
Joycelyn Curtis ◽  
Janel A. Lowman
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
Health Workers

Training Community Health Workers in Motivational Interviewing to Promote Cancer Screening

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-250
Author(s):  
Arica Brandford ◽  
Adebola Adegboyega ◽  
Brenda Combs ◽  
Jennifer Hatcher
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Screening ◽  
Motivational Interviewing ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Medical Mistrust ◽  
Intervention Protocol ◽  
Training Community ◽  
Training Protocol

Health disparities researchers attempting to engage and effectively deliver interventions to underserved populations often encounter a number of challenges ranging from geographical considerations to more complex issues of medical mistrust. While there are a number of strategies researchers may employ to address these challenges, one of the most successful of these has been the use of community health workers (CHWs). Despite the documented success of CHWs, little information exists on the use of theory-driven intervention strategies with these community partners. Researchers who have partnered with CHWs tend to provide brief descriptions of training strategies and provide little discussion of the challenges and barriers to training a lay population in the delivery of technical interventions, including ensuring fidelity to the intervention protocol. The purpose of this article is to describe the feasibility of training CHWs to deliver a motivational interviewing intervention to promote cancer screening in underserved populations. With this article we present an innovative way to use motivational interviewing delivered by CHWs. Specifically, we will detail the development of the training protocol, the implementation of that training in a variety of research settings, and the development and implementation of fidelity protocols. We will use examples from two research studies where CHWs were successfully trained to use MI to promote cancer screening in underserved communities to highlight the challenges and barriers faced in developing and implementing the training and strategies used to overcome these challenges during the refinement of the intervention.

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