Abstract

Programs to support workforce diversity in social care: Examples from one medical center

Bonnie Ewald, MA¹, Teresa Moro² and Alyssa McFadden, MSW¹
(1)RUSH University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, (2)RUSH University, Chicago, IL

APHA 2024 Annual Meeting and Expo

Having a healthcare workforce that represents the diversity of populations served is essential for rebuilding trust in public health and science. At RUSH University Medical Center, the Social Work and Community Health department currently leads several initiatives designed to increase the diversity of the social care workforce, including social workers and community health workers. Our first initiative is called the Social Work in Health Care (SWIHC) Training Program which is a seven-month program designed to increase knowledge, confidence, and practice skills in health care by providing continuing education courses and complementary supports that address barriers to professional development for under-represented social workers. Another program, the Legacy Mental Health Fellowship, is a program that supports two Black social workers in providing direct mental health care to members of the community. The fellowship provides two-years of full-time employment, supervision, and support in sitting for the licensing exam. Our team also ran focus groups with community health workers to determine interest, barriers, and facilitators to working within their fields and their desire to move into social work. Other workforce development initiatives include engaging with career fairs with middle and high school students and providing internship opportunities to students from local universities. In this presentation, we will describe our programs as well as provide outcome data where available. We will also discuss future directions for both research and clinical practice in both social work and community health work.

Advocacy for health and health education Diversity and culture Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs Provision of health care to the public