Community health workers serve as vital employees at The Wright Center for Community Health’s primary health and preventive care practices in Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wayne counties, including The Wright Center for Community Health Wilkes-Barre, seen here, and The Wright Center for Community Health Scranton practices.
Submitted photo
CHW Awareness Week is observed from from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1
The Wright Center for Community Health is highlighing the need for community health workers in conjunction with National Community Health Worker Awareness Week, which is observed from from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1.
It is one of the fastest-growing careers in health care, but it has nothing to do with direct medical care: CHWs, as they’re also called, help people meet various basic needs, including housing, utility bills, nutritious foods, clothing, insurance, transportation to and from medical appointments, according to a release issued by the center.
Community health workers serve as vital employees at The Wright Center for Community Health’s primary health and preventive care practices in Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wayne counties, including The Wright Center for Community Health Wilkes-Barre, and The Wright Center for Community Health Scranton practices.
“Community health workers, they’re pretty much the foundation,” said Amanda Vommaro, CCHW, director of patient-centered services and supervisor of the community health workers at the center. “We make sure the patients are getting their social needs met so that they’re able to address their health.”
As an example, Vommaro said, a patient with financial difficulties may have to choose between buying food or medication. Connecting the patient to a food pantry could help them solve that critical dilemma.
“If you don’t have your basic needs met, you’re not really able to do anything else,” she said about patients. “When they’re not buying medication and taking care of their health, that’s where we come in.”
Growing need
The need for CHWs is greater than ever, the center notes: Employment of community health workers across the United States is projected to grow 12% between 2021 and 2031 – much faster than the average for other occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It is a need that was underscored during the COVID-19 pandemic said Chelsea Wolff, a health educator with the Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (AHEC), as thousands of people lost their jobs and found themselves navigating an often-overwhelming system to apply for unemployment, food stamps, rent and mortgage relief, and other aid from government entities and local social service agencies.
President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan called for hiring 100,000 CHWs over 10 years starting in 2021 to support the prevention and control of COVID-19, but many entities that employ CHWs are having trouble filling the jobs, including The Wright Center.
Lack of familiarity
As Wolff notes, this is partly due to lack of familiarity with the position.
“People are starting to know about it, but we have a long way to go,” she said.
AHEC hopes to help fill the need locally through training courses, some of which are held virtually. The center began offering CHW courses in 2009.
The course covers the basics of what a CHW needs to know, from building an understanding of different cultures and health literacy to learning how to complete documentation and how to avoid job burnout. CHWs live in the communities they serve, so they become experts in knowing what resources are available and how best to connect clients to them, Vommaro and Wolff said.
The AHEC classes feature many guest speakers, so trainees can begin building a list of local resources that provide help. “It’s helping to connect the dots and really building those contacts,” Wolff said.
Vommaro said clients are often more at ease interacting with CHWs, which can be “a little less intimidating than talking to their doctor.”
“It’s just a different level of comfort when you’re talking to a community health worker because sometimes we’ve been in the same situation they are in,” she said. “We’re people who live in their community.”
TO LEARN MORE
• For more information about the course, visit the AHEC’s website at NEPA-AHEC.org.
• AHEC also offers monthly informational sessions about CHWs every second Monday of the month. To learn more, go to PACHW.org/upcoming-sessions.
• The Wright Center for Community Health has several job openings for CHWs. To search job listings, visit TheWrightCenter.org/careers.
