HPAC Scholar's Day 2019 CHW_Assessment_Key_Findings | Page 44

incentivize her to overcome the barriers to
obtaining her certification. However, others
noted reservations about moving towards
title protection and mandatory certification
to practice as a CHW. These participants
noted that while title protection may be
good for respect, it might be too restrictive
and exclusive for many current non-certified
CHWs and CHWs should be inclusive of all in
the community. Others noted that it is not the
title that really matters but the educational
requirements for CHWs. More discussion is
needed in Ohio regarding moving towards
potential title protection and a mandate for
certification in Ohio to practice as a CHW.
These discussions will be critical as CHWs seek
to improve their professional identity and
become a more unified profession in Ohio.
Focus of CHW Work in Ohio
Another overarching finding of this
assessment is that CHWs work with a variety of
populations in Ohio and have a variety of roles
and responsibilities. While CHWs may work
with any population or topic area, the most
frequently reported target population and
or/topic areas from CHW survey respondents
were adult women, pregnancy/prenatal
care, adult men, children, and infants. Many
CHWs reported targeting low-income and
underserved populations as well as minority
populations as a particular focus of their work.
Additionally, the top five health conditions
that CHWs reported they address most
often in their practice were mental health,
diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma,
and obesity. Though again, CHWs reported
working with a wide range of conditions.
In terms of CHW responsibilities, both CHWs
and employers report these top 10 roles (in
order of frequency reported by CHWs):
■ ■
Connect clients to other community
resources (i.e., food, housing, and/or
employment needs)
■ ■ Educate clients about how to use health
and social services
■ ■ Motivate and encourage people to obtain
care and other services
■ ■ Provide patients with information to
understand and prevent/manage health
conditions (including chronic disease)
■ ■ Conduct home visits to provide
education, assessment, and social
support
■ ■ Assist clients in reading and
understanding health information from
their provider
■ ■ Attend care coordination and/or case
management meetings with a team in the
organization
■ ■ Make referrals to providers
■ ■ Build individual and community capacity
(teaching those served to manage their
own health needs)
■ ■ Conduct individual assessments (such as
home environmental assessment)
Again, CHWs responsibilities were not
limited to these 10 items, but a wide variety
was seen and a majority of the roles and
responsibilities of CHWs aligned with the C3
Project’s defined roles of CHWs nationally.
Many CHWs reported that their roles and
responsibilities were different everyday
depending on their clients. It was also noted
that some employers may not utilize CHWs to
their fullest capacity as evidenced by CHWs
spending a lot of time in the office rather
than in the community and CHWs performing
office administrative support duties, such as
filing paperwork and making copies. Again,
no difference was observed between the
reported responsibilities of non-certified
CHWs in comparison to certified CHWs.
Discussion of Assessment Findings
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