2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

322130
State Consideration of Community Health Worker Roles in State Health Care Model Design


Wednesday, November 4, 2015 : 8:30 a.m. - 8:42 a.m.

Lesley A. Cottrell, Ph.D., Department of Pediatrics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
The State of West Virginia (WV) is one of 22 states that received a CMS State Innovation Model (SIM) Design award in 2015. In one year, the state leaders must design their integrated health care model as a requirement of this award. Successful procedures and programs are being compared and considered for inclusion in the statewide health care model. A proportion of these programs incorporate roles and responsibilities for Community Health Workers (CHWs). CHW’s commonly provide culturally responsive services that may include: health coaching, outreach, system navigation, capacity building, and advocacy. Deciding which programs are evidence-based and appropriate for the target population (i.e., chronic disease patients) requires a complex process that is not often documented in the current literature for guidance or direction.

The objective of this abstract is to highlight results from a comparative analysis of CHW programming within WV and describe how these findings are considered in the decision to incorporate the role of CHWs in the larger state health care model.

More than 25 WV programs have successfully incorporated CHWs to implement their mission and activities. These programs will be compared based select criteria including: CHW definition, role, training requirements, activities and monitoring, evidence-based program results connected to CHW role, and cost-effectiveness. This presentation will also outline the decision-making model and process used to consider inclusion (or exclusion) of CHWs in the larger state health care model. This description will include factors important to state and private payers, health care providers, and consumers.

Learning Areas:

Chronic disease management and prevention
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Identify and describe examples of programming in rural, West Virginia that incorporates Community Health Workers (CHWs) roles and responsibilities to provide integrated and/or transitional medical care for chronic populations; Demonstrate ways CHWs impact the medical care model and subsequent health outcomes for rural populations; and Explain decision making process for determining inclusion, or exclusion, of CHW role in state health model design

Keyword(s): Chronic Disease Management and Care, Community Health Workers and Promoters

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As a developmental psychologist and public health researcher, I have worked in the Department of Pediatrics for more than 15 years. I am a co-investigator on the CMS-funded state innovation model design grant and I am co-chair of the Better Health workgroup for the Secretary of Health.
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: 5065.0: CHW integrated care and services