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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing
Session: Policy and Practice Issues Relevant to the Training of Community Health Workers
4208.0: Tuesday, November 06, 2007: 2:30 PM-4:00 PM
Oral
Policy and Practice Issues Relevant to the Training of Community Health Workers
Community health workers (CHWs) have played an essential role in helping people access health care services, embrace positive health behaviors, and navigate complicated treatment regimens for chronic conditions such as cancer, diabetes, asthma and HIV/AIDS. CHWs provide invaluable guidance, support and empathy in a culturally and socially appropriate way. The CHW model has also been found to be particularly effective in health promotion initiatives among vulnerable and under-served populations. As the CHW model gains recognition, CHWs are finding themselves in many new and emerging roles, such as patient navigators and natural researchers. The lack of policy and practice directives for training CHWs has led to fragmented and localized training efforts with no clear common goals. Through the experiences of a CHW presenter, this session will examine the core competencies that have emerged for the practice of CHWs and the importance of helping CHWs develop these essential skills. The session will also examine policy and planning implications in developing standard trainings for CHWs.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to: • Identify core competencies community health workers use in their practice. • Recognize importance of core competencies to applications of the CHW model • Assess the need for training in both health-topic knowledge and core competencies • Discuss policy and planning implications of developing standardized comprehensive training for CHWs that utilizes participatory adult education methods
Moderator(s):Sergio Matos, BS, CHW
2:30 PM   What are core competencies that describe the community health worker practice and how do we help develop them
Sergio Matos, BS, CHW, Anne Willaert, BS, LSW, E. Lee Rosenthal, PhD
2:55 PMAlternatives to pedantic methods for teaching community health workers about chronic disease management
Romelia Rodriguez, CHW, Brenda Cartwright, EdD, Graciela Camarena, CHW, AA
3:20 PM   Adult education methods effective for training community health workers, including participatory adult education methodologies, liberation education and popular education
Romelia Rodriguez, CHW, Sergio Matos, BS, CHW, Graciela Camarena, CHW, AA
See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement and author's information.
Organized by:Community Health Planning and Policy Development
Endorsed by:APHA-Committee on Women's Rights; Community Health Workers SPIG; Community-Based Public Health Caucus
CE Credits:CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing

The 135th APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 3-7, 2007) of APHA