Alternatives to pedantic methods for teaching community health workers about chronic disease management

Community health workers (CHWs play an essential role in helping people understand chronic disease, access health care services, embrace positive health behaviors, and navigate complicated treatment regimens for conditions such as cancer, diabetes, asthma and HIV/AIDS. The training of CHWs is often delivered using pedantic methods which focus on medical theory and practice. This training is often delivered through didactic teaching methods, including dictation, lecture and presentations. Although these methods certainly provide much knowledge, they do not model adult teaching methods appropriate for the work of CHWs with the families they serve. CHWs provide invaluable guidance, support and empathy in a culturally and socially appropriate way. As community members, CHWs are able to integrate health information about disease treatment and prevention into the community's culture, language, and value systems. They seldom dictate, lecture or issue commands or directives. This session will specifically examine alternatives to the didactic methods used to teach CHWs about chronic disease management and explore the policy implications of these alternatives on the role of CHWs as integral members of healthcare teams. The presenters include a CHW with experience training CHWs using participatory adult learning methodologies.