Oral

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.

Session 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

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing