A Brief Journey as a CHW
As Community Health Workers (CHWs), we are the frontline that connects communities to various resources. We make sure that the community fulfills its basic requirements. We work with low-income, refugees, immigrants, unhoused, homeless, and other vulnerable populations who do not have access to healthcare and other resources. A Community Health Worker (CHW) should have the heart to do the work, or it has to be a die heart work, or if you have worn their shoe and feel the pain, then it will be easier for a CHW to feel the pain and take the task to complete the work that you have started. The list is beyond the capacity of the CHW, and we try our best to find them to serve our communities. CHW wears different hats to serve the communities with the dedication to building relationships, assessment, knowledge of resources, effective communication, cultural sensitivity, follow-up, documentation, collaboration, continuing education, and feedback. Some central populations we regularly serve are refugees, immigrants, moms, and low-income and elderly populations.
The general population needs help with the following:
CHW's focus is more on.
1. SNAP applications.
2. Housing
3. Green card renewal.
4. Utility bills.
5. Food
6. Medicaid applications.
7. Medical appointments
8. Transportation
9. Food pantry
10. Prescription
11. Disability appointment
12. Free phone
13. ESL classes
14. Citizenship classes
15. Hospital Bills
16. Clothing
17. Baby diapers
18. Baby formulas
19. Baby items
20. Baby Clothing
21. Furniture and many more
Our process is robust and resourceful. We call the person, introduce ourselves, and ask the SDOH survey questions. These questions often lead the person to share their entire life story. We gather almost all the necessary answers and then explain how we connect the population with available resources. While we cannot guarantee these resources, we are resourceful and will do our best to find out and get back to them within two to three days. Our resourcefulness is further
demonstrated by the multiple CHWs who speak different languages, ensuring we can communicate effectively with diverse clients. The linguistic diversity within our team further enhances this, as many of us speak multiple languages to serve our clients better.
Collaborating with other programs and organizations is central to our success. For example, our partnership with Cradle KC provides crucial support for infant health, while the Kansas Assistance Network helps clients with Medicaid applications. Through initiatives like Wyco Mutual Aid and Every Baby to 1, we offer various community-based services, including vaccine canvassing, health screenings, and educational events promoting health access. We also work closely with Maternal and Child Health Workers (MCHWs) to offer comprehensive services for mothers and children.
CHWs organize and attend events promoting healthcare awareness, such as vaccine clinics, health screenings, food distributions, etc. We help clients access various services during these events and ensure they understand the available resources. We also assist in-home visits for clients who are disabled or unable to attend offices, providing support and education on healthcare matters like blood pressure monitoring.
As part of our outreach efforts, CHWs engage in door-to-door canvassing, especially during the pandemic, to inform the community about available resources. We encountered challenges of canvassing, which were usually language barriers, safety concerns, and logistical difficulties, but our commitment to reaching those in need remains steadfast. We often encounter language barriers that make communication difficult, safety concerns due to the nature of the neighborhoods we work in, and logistical difficulties in planning and executing the canvassing.
As a CHW, attending conferences in various places provides a lot of education and teaches almost all the topics required for all CHWs. The break rooms that take to another level of learning, asking questions, and getting the answers are incredible. We exchange resources and business cards with many CHWs or vendors from different agencies. We learn about the documentation on case studies, addressing the SDOH, increasing access to health care for different communities, and many more based on education. Our leaders come to the conferences and advocate for all the CHWs on the pay rate. Since CHWs are the survival of the grant funding, they are the ones who brought lots of changes to hospitals and other departments across the country. CHW needs have become a national need for any kind of organization. We can name it: clinics, pharmacies, nonprofits, health departments, etc.
Overall, we have success stories to share with our teams and the world about how far we have accomplished and how long we can go with this job to make a difference in the community. It's teamwork, and we try our best to reach out to the communities and share our work with them in the field and with our coworkers to show the differences that we made. There is never an end to the CHW's job. It is like a mother caring for their babies at home 24/7. There is no retirement at all.