Community health workers provide services to help communities manage health and wellness as part of a multidisciplinary health care team. Overall employment of health education specialists and community health workers is projected to grow 12% from 2021 to 2031, faster than the average for all occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“As a workforce, they have really gained great traction I would say over the last four or five years,” Lisa Henderson, vice president of health initiatives at the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association (GDAHA).
GDAHA manages the Dayton Regional Pathways HUB, which partners with agencies who, together, employ a approximately 36 community health workers working in the region. The different partner agencies, which range between different health and social services, include Dayton Children’s Hospital, East End Community Services, Ebenezer Healthcare Access, Goodwill Easterseals, OneFifteen, House of Bread, and Rocking Horse Community Health Center, along with other federally qualified health centers.
“We’re actually seeing a number of hospitals and health systems that are also engaging community health workers, but the position is really non-clinical,” Henderson said. “They are focused on addressing the whole person, so what those needs of different vulnerable populations might be, whether it’s accessing food or helping making a connection for housing or employment or if they need a medical home, they become that care coordinator across all the social determinants of health.”
About 16,000 openings for health education specialists and community health workers are projected each year, on average, over the decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
The Dayton Regional Pathways HUB is tracking outcomes for more than 800 patients involved in this care coordination model.
“I have a family who did not have a family doctor. They were using the emergency room as their family doctor, so I was able to connect them to a PCP, a family provider,” said Jocelyn Cooke, a community health worker at Dayton Children’s. “A lot of times, they use the ER only when they get sick, but by them having a family doctor, they get their annual check-ups to maybe prevent some future health issues in the future.”
Cooke, who has been a community health worker for five years, got into the field because she loved connecting with people, many of whom are also from her own local community.
“I love working with people. I love families, helping families connect to the different resources in the area,” Cooke said. “So many families don’t know what’s out here, and some of them just don’t have the tools to access the resources, so I love connecting them to the resources in our area and our community.”
While some barriers to improved health outcomes are things like transportation, housing, and insurance coverage, another can be language. Jean de Dieu Mukunzi, who is the founder and executive director of Ebenezer Healthcare Access, experienced that barrier himself, so he decided to help others navigate the U.S. health system after he became educated on it.
“When I came here, I struggled to know how I can get the resources because of the language barrier, and then I went to school so I can be able to know how the healthcare system works here in America,” Mukunzi said. “Then, after my studies, I was able to start to help Americans and non-English-speaking people to navigate the health care system.”
Mukunzi, who has been a community health worker since 2012, speaks seven languages, and he and his team frequently work with people from Latin America, Russia, Ukraine, sub-Saharan Africa, and India.
Local colleges have also been taking note of this growing trend. Kettering College landed a $1.8 federal grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to train community health workers, and they are currently accepting applications for the fall 2023 semester. Tuition and various wrap-around services are covered by the grant to help remove preventative barriers, according to a Kettering College news release.
CareSource and Central State University also partnered to launch a certificate program to train community health workers earlier this year, and the first students from that program received their certificates on June 8.
“I’m really excited about it. It is a big step for me,” said Taylor Prince, one of the students from that 12-week program. Prince is going to Central State in the fall, but the information she learned during the program is still something people be aware of, she said.
“Even if they’re not wanting to go out and work as a community health worker, taking the class itself, it’s very educational. It’s something that I think everyone should have some knowledge of,” Prince said.
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