New Roles for Community Health Workers: Innovative and nontraditional ways to involve community health workers in the coordination and implementation of a chronic disease prevention and management program for Russian-speaking immigrants

Community Health Workers are taking on new roles. Sometimes stepping outside the traditional roles of Community Health Workers can have a positive impact on patients, staff, and the larger community.

Presenters will describe the role of community health workers in the comprehensive, culturally-appropriate chronic disease prevention and management project, “Let's Be Healthy!” which was developed in response to a community assessment among Russian-speaking immigrants in San Francisco. Project components include a social marketing campaign, community-based activity and health education sessions, clinic-based chronic care management groups, and leadership development, in which community health workers are involved. The presentation will highlight several innovative and nontraditional roles for community health workers in this project and the impact community health workers have had on successful outreach, engagement, and achieving objectives in preventing and managing chronic disease in the Russian community. Part of the discussion will focus on the importance of increased training for community health workers and stretching the boundaries of comfort in the accepted and traditional roles of community health workers. Discussion will include the challenges to working with Community Health Workers when they are not in their traditional roles, the importance of supervision, training and mentoring in this process, and the impact of these new roles on the project and the community at large. Key evaluation findings and recommendations from the first three years of the project will be shared, along with methods used for conveying this information to project staff, participants and collaborators.