Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities: Academic-community partnership to support workforce capacity building among Arizona community health workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has both highlighted and worsened existing health inequities among communities of color and structurally vulnerable populations. Community Health Workers, inclusive of Community Health Representatives (CHW/Rs) have entered the spotlight as essential to COVID-19 prevention and control. To learn about community experiences and perspectives related to COVID-19 and inform CHW/R workforce capacity building efforts, a series of focus groups were conducted with CHW/Rs throughout Arizona at two time points in 2021. Throughout the data collection and analysis process, researchers and community partners engaged in ongoing and open dialogue about what CHW/Rs on the ground were reporting as priority community concerns, needs, and challenges. Thus, CHW/Rs informed the development of culturally and linguistically relevant health education messages, materials, and training for CHW/Rs. In this community case study, we detail the efforts of partnership between a statewide CHW professional association and an academic research team that facilitated rapid decision-making and knowledge sharing to create community-grounded tools and resources supportive of CHW/R workforce capacity building in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An integrated mixed methods approach to clarifying delivery, receipt and potential benefits of CHW-facilitated social support in a health promotion intervention.

BACKGROUND: Social support plays a critical role in physical and emotional health, making it an important component of community health worker (CHW) health promotion interventions. Different types of support operate in different ways, however, and the relationship between the nature of CHW support and the subsequent health benefit for their clients is not well understood. METHODS: This paper describes an integrated mixed methods study of the emotional, informational, appraisal and tangible support CHWs provided to Latinx community members residing in three US-Mexico border communities. Using a cohort (n = 159) from a CHW community-based intervention, we identify and describe four clusters of social support in which participants are characterized by life situations that informed the types of social support provided by the CHW. We examine the association between each cluster and client perceptions of social support over the 6-month intervention. RESULTS: CHWs provided emotional, appraisal, informational and tangible support depending on the needs of participants. Participants who received higher levels of emotional support from the CHW experienced the greatest post intervention increase in perceived social support. CONCLUSIONS: Study findings suggest that CHWs may be adept at providing non-directive social support based on their interaction with a client rather than a health outcome objective. Health promotion interventions should allow CHWs the flexibility to tailor provision of social support based on their assessment of client needs.

Training Needs of Community Health Workers Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic in Texas: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has required the professional healthcare workforce not only to adjust methods of delivering care safely but also act as a trusted sources of information during a time of uncertainty and rapid research and discovery. The Community Health Worker COVID-19 Impact Survey is a cross-sectional study developed to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on this sector of the healthcare workforce, including training needs of those working through the pandemic. The survey was distributed in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. This study focuses on Texas, and the data presented (n = 693) is a sub-set of qualitative data from the larger survey. Results of the content analysis described in this paper are intended to inform current COVID-19-related CHW training curriculum, in addition to future infectious disease prevention and preparedness response trainings.

Organizational Readiness for Community Health Worker Workforce Integration Among Medicaid Contracted Health Plans and Provider Networks: An Arizona Case Study.

Understanding and building organizational capacity for system change and the integration of the Community Health Worker (CHW) workforce within the health scare sector requires a supportive organizational culture among sector leaders and providers. The aim of this mixed-methods study was to assess organizational readiness for CHW workforce integration into Arizona Medicaid health systems and care teams. This collaborative effort was in direct response to emergent state and national CHW workforce policy opportunities, and the shifting health care landscape in Arizona - which merged behavior and physical health. Specifically, and in collaboration with a broad-based, statewide CHW workforce coalition, led by the CHW professional association, we assessed 245 licensed health care professionals with experience working with CHWs and 16 Medicaid-contracted health plan leadership. Our goal was to generate a baseline understanding of the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs these stakeholders held about the integration of CHWs into systems and teams. Our findings demonstrate a high level of organizational readiness and action toward integration of CHWs within the Arizona health care system and care teams. CHWs have emerged as a health care workforce able to enhance the patient experience of care, improve population health, reduce cost of care, and improve the experience of providing care among clinicians and staff.

Establishing voluntary certification of community health workers in Arizona: a policy case study of building a unified workforce.

BACKGROUND: Community health workers (CHWs) are widely recognized as essential to addressing disparities in health care delivery and outcomes in US vulnerable populations. In the state of Arizona, the sustainability of the workforce is threatened by low wages, poor job security, and limited opportunities for training and advancement within the profession. CHW voluntary certification offers an avenue to increase the recognition, compensation, training, and standardization of the workforce. However, passing voluntary certification legislation in an anti-regulatory state such as Arizona posed a major challenge that required a robust advocacy effort. CASE PRESENTATION: In this article, we describe the process of unifying the two major CHW workforces in Arizona, promotoras de salud in US-Mexico border communities and community health representatives (CHRs) serving American Indian communities. Differences in the origins, financing, and even language of the population-served contributed to historically divergent interests between CHRs and promotoras. In order to move forward as a collective workforce, it was imperative to integrate the perspectives of CHRs, who have a regular funding stream and work closely through the Indian Health Services, with those of promotoras, who are more likely to be grant-funded in community-based efforts. As a unified workforce, CHWs were better positioned to gain advocacy support from key health care providers and health insurance companies with policy influence. We seek to elucidate the lessons learned in our process that may be relevant to CHWs representing diverse communities across the US and internationally. CONCLUSIONS: Legislated voluntary certification provides a pathway for further professionalization of the CHW workforce by establishing a standard definition and set of core competencies. Voluntary certification also provides guidance to organizations in developing appropriate training and job activities, as well as ongoing professional development opportunities. In developing certification with CHWs representing different populations, and in particular Tribal Nations, it is essential to assure that the CHW definition is in alignment with all groups and that the scope of practice reflects CHW roles in both clinic and community-based settings. The Arizona experience underscores the benefits of a flexible approach that leverages existing strengths in organizations and the population served.

Protocol for LINKS (linking individual needs to community and clinical services): a prospective matched observational study of a community health worker community clinical linkage intervention on the U.S.-Mexico border.

BACKGROUND: Latinos are currently the largest and fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States and have the lowest rates nationally of regular sources of primary care. The changing demographics of Latino populations have significant implications for the future health of the nation, particularly with respect to chronic disease. Community-based agencies and clinics alike have a long history of engaging community health workers (CHWs) to provide a broad range of tangible and emotional support strategies for Latinos with chronic diseases. In this paper, we present the protocol for a community intervention designed to evaluate the impact of CHWs in a Community-Clinical Linkage model to address chronic disease through innovative utilization of electronic health records (EHRs) and application of mixed methodologies. Linking Individual Needs to Community and Clinical Services (LINKS) is a 3-year, prospective matched observational study designed to examine the feasibility and impact of CHW-led Community-Clinical Linkages in reducing chronic disease risk and promoting emotional well-being among Latinos living in three U.S.-Mexico border communities. METHODS: The primary aim of LINKS is to create Community-Clinical Linkages between three community health centers and their respective county health departments in southern Arizona. Our primary analysis is to examine the impact of the intervention 6 to 12-months post program entry. We will assess chronic disease risk factors documented in the EHRs of participants versus matched non-participants. By using a prospective matched observational study design with EHRs, we have access to numerous potential comparators to evaluate the intervention effects. Secondary analyses include modeling within-group changes of extended research-collected measures. This approach enhances the overall evaluation with rich data on physical and emotional well-being and health behaviors of study participants that EHR systems do not collect in routine clinical practice. DISCUSSION: The LINKS intervention has practical implications for the development of Community-Clinical Linkage models. The collaborative and participatory approach in LINKS illustrates an innovative evaluation framework utilizing EHRs and mixed methods research-generated data collection. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study protocol was retrospectively registered, approved, and made available on Clinicaltrials.gov by NCT03787485 as of December 20, 2018.

Community Health Worker Professional Advocacy: Voices of Action from the 2014 National Community Health Worker Advocacy Survey.

This mixed-methods study explores community health worker (CHW) engagement in professional advocacy. Data from the National Community Health Worker Advocacy Survey (n = 1661) assessed the relationship between CHW professional advocacy and CHW demographics, and work characteristics. Qualitative data articulated the quality of professional advocacy efforts. Approximately, 30% of CHW respondents advocated for professional advancement or collaborated with other CHWs to advance the workforce. Advocacy was more prevalent among CHWs affiliated with a professional network. CHW advocacy targeted recognition of the field, appropriate training and compensation, and sustainable funding. CHW professional advocacy is imperative to advancement of the field.

Stress and sociocultural factors related to health status among US-Mexico border farmworkers.

This study examines factors relating to farmworkers' health status from sociocultural factors, including stress embedded within their work and community contexts. A cross-sectional household survey of farmworkers (N = 299) included social-demographics, immigration status descriptors, and a social-ecologically grounded, community-responsive, stress assessment. Outcomes included three standard US national surveillance measures of poor mental, physical, and self-rated health (SRH). Logistic regression models showed that higher levels of stress were significantly associated (Ps < .001) with increased risk for poor mental health and poor physical health considering all variables. Stress was not associated with SRH. Regarding two of the three outcomes, mental health and physical health, stress added explanatory power as expected. For poor SRH, a known marker for mortality risk and quite high in the sample at 38%, only age was significantly associated. Clinical and systems-level health promotion strategies may be required to mitigate these stressors in border-residing farmworkers.

The border community and immigration stress scale: a preliminary examination of a community responsive measure in two Southwest samples.

Understanding contemporary socio-cultural stressors may assist educational, clinical and policy-level health promotion efforts. This study presents descriptive findings on a new measure, the border community and immigration stress scale. The data were from two community surveys as part of community based participatory projects conducted in the Southwestern US border region. This scale includes stressful experiences reflected in extant measures, with new items reflecting heightened local migration pressures and health care barriers. Stressors representing each main domain, including novel ones, were reported with frequency and at high intensity in the predominantly Mexican-descent samples. Total stress was also significantly associated with mental and physical health indicators. The study suggests particularly high health burdens tied to the experience of stressors in the US border region. Further, many of the stressors are also likely relevant for other communities within developed nations also experiencing high levels of migration.

Taking a broad approach to public health program adaptation: adapting a family-based diabetes education program.

Diabetes health disparities among Hispanic populations have been countered with federally funded health promotion and disease prevention programs. Dissemination has focused on program adaptation to local cultural contexts for greater acceptability and sustainability. Taking a broader approach and drawing on our experience in Mexican American communities at the U.S.-Mexico Border, we demonstrate how interventions are adapted at the intersection of multiple cultural contexts: the populations targeted, the community- and university-based entities designing and implementing interventions, and the field team delivering the materials. Program adaptation involves negotiations between representatives of all contexts and is imperative in promoting local ownership and program sustainability.