274644 Community Health Workers: A Disruptive Innovation to the Health Care System

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 9:35 AM - 9:55 AM

Laura Hitchcock, JD , Assessment, Policy Development & Evaluation Unit, Public Health-Seattle & King County, Seattle, WA
     
We will describe our policy innovation project that will create broad understanding of the need to develop policies that address role development, workforce issues and financing for Community Health Workers in Washington State. Our project addresses the problem definition and policy development/analysis stages of the policy development cycle. We will describe lessons learned with our internal workforce and systems, as well as our experience working with our community-based partner, the Comprehensive Health Education Foundation, which will join us for this panel.

Learning Objectives:
1) Describe challenges and opportunities of a health department pursuing policy development work 2) Describe context for community health worker policy development in Washington State 3) List 3 examples of benefits of health departments working with/through community partners when defining and developing policy

Keywords: Lay Health Workers, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: For over 20 years, I have been active in policy development in multiple organizations, including the Washington State Public Health Association and United Way of King County. At Public Health – Seattle King County, I lead policy systems research, including our public health Practice-based Research Network. I chair our internal Community Health Workers policy working group and am principal investigator on our policy grant addressing expanding the use of CHWs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3008.0: Utilizing Policy for Population Health Improvement: Lessons Learned from APHA’s Power of Policy Innovation Contest