Community Health Workers

Community Health Workers (CHWs) come from the communities they serve, building trust and vital relationships. This trusting relationship enables the CHWs to be effective links between their own communities and systems of care. This crucial relationship significantly lowers health disparities because CHWs provide access to services, improve the quality and cultural competence of care, create an effective system of chronic disease management, and increase the health, knowledge, and self-sufficiency of underserved populations.

Rural Health Network’s Community Health Workers (CHWs) are a highly trained, competent workforce who assist people with navigating complex healthcare and social service systems. Many obtain college degrees in health and human services or related fields. Rural Health Network currently has Community Health Workers serving Broome, Tioga, and Delaware Counties.

CHWs use a wide variety of evidence based tools to assess individual assets and identify barriers to accessing resources to improve their own health and well being or in a caregiving role for their family members.

CHWs work closely with clinical health care providers and community organizations to support the needs of those they assist. CHWs look at how a patient’s immediate environment and non-medical needs, not just physical wellness, can impact overall well-being. Also called social determinants of health, these can include financial stability, housing, transportation, and access to nutritious food. In addition to helping individuals navigate and utilize healthcare services, CHWs support those they serve with support for healthy lifestyles, recovery, self- management skills, financial assistance or to meet basic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, utilities, transportation, and prescription medication.

CHWs also provide direct services to clients through office visits, home visits, phone calls and mailings. They conduct individual health coaching sessions via phone or in person, or within small group trainings in neighboring communities.

Their approaches to outreach and engagement work across the continuum of care with people who are: uninsured/ underinsured, non utilizers of preventative care, active primary care patients, hospital discharges, or preparing for long term care.