Community Health Worker network meetings help improve health care access to immigrants and other underserved populations

Community Health Workers (CHW) in Miami, Florida face significant challenges connecting Caribbean and Hispanic immigrants with proper health care access and other social services. Language barriers and cultural misunderstandings are major obstacles CHWs must overcome to best provide access to care. One method that has been introduced is the institution of a CHW network where CHWs and Health Navigators (HN) convene to discuss and evaluate emerging practices as a group. At network meetings, CHW and HN participants present their success stories and listen to the lessons discussed. Here, the discussion of experiences helps to reinforce proactive, well-informed outreach regarding immigration barriers and builds a community of CHWs sensitive to the special needs of immigrants. These meetings also operate as a means to provide CHWs and HNs personal development training on related immigration issues such as resource identification, leadership development, data collection, domestic violence, and policy and advocacy. The meetings take place on a monthly basis and play an additional role of increasing CHW retention and promoting greater partnerships in the communities where they work. For this presentation, Health Navigators Rayllensons Itacy and Lucia Pizano from Jackson Health Systems will discuss specifically how these monthly meetings improved their ability to help immigrants access health care; how the meetings help CHWs and HNs stayed informed; and how they provide inspiration for CHWs and HNs in the field.