A Report of
The Community Health Worker Training Program, Community Health Workers: A Regional Labor Market Study -Survey of
Eight Counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1996 "The widespread incorporation of CHWs into the health care delivery system offers unparalled opportunities to improve the delivery of preventive and primary care to America's diverse communities." Pew Health Professions Commission
CHW Training Program
Abstract In recent years there has been an upsurge of
interest in Community Health Workers. CHWs are community members who serve as front line
health care professionals. They generally work with the underserved and are indigenous to
the community in which they work--ethnically, linguistically, socio-economically and
experientially. The paper presents the results of a survey of 197 systematically selected
health care providers in eight Bay Area Counties. The survey was conducted to ascertain
the number of CHWs in the field and to get a profile of who they are and what they do. We
found that 25% of the health care providers in these eight counties hire CHWs. The hiring
projections indicate that opportunies are expanding for these front line professionals,
with the majority of growth being in Public Health Departments and Community Based
Organizations (CBOs). The majority of CHWs are women (66%) of color (77%) with a
high-school degree or less (58%). Forty-four percent earn an annual salary of $20,00 to
$25,000 with 30% making more than $25,001. HIV/AIDS/STD and Maternal and Child
Health/Perinatal are the two major content foci of CHW work. Our data supports the Pew
Health Professions Commission's assessment that CHWs are an increasingly important way to
extend primary and community health care.
In recent years, many innovative community health promotion and primary health care programs have utilized community members in a front line outreach capacity. There role is referred to by many names, including: Community Health Worker (CHW), Lay Health Advisor (LHA), Community Health Representative (CHR) and Public Health Aide (PHA). Working mainly with underserved communities, these health workers serve in a variety of capacities, from functioning informally as volunteers, to having more formal roles as front line health care professionals. There is not an agreed-upon set of skills for these health workers nor is there a clear definition of their role. Serving as "culture brokers" between their community and the health care system, they are indigenous to the community in which they work--ethnically, linguistically, socio-economically, and experientially. 1 This "insider" orientation provides these workers with a unique understanding of the culture and strength of the community they serve. 1,2,3,4 Because they are trusted they can serve as effective conduits of information, resources, services and advice on how to access those services. If respected as members of the health care team, these frontline workers can play an invaluable role in delivering culturally appropriate cost effective health care. 1,2,3,4,5,6 The focus of this paper is the Community Health Worker, whose role is generally considered to be more formal and professional than the Lay Health Advisor. Lay Health Advisors as described by Eng and Young 7 are lay helpers "to whom others naturally turn for advice, emotional support and aid. They provide informal, spontaneous assistance which is so much a part of everyday life that its value is often not recognized." The CHW is broadly defined by the Pew Health Professions Commission "as community members who work almost exclusively in community settings and who serve as connectors between health care consumers and providers to promote health among groups that have traditionally lacked access to adequate care." 8 Although they share many of the same roles as lay health workers, Community Health Workers are typically not volunteers; they are employees in the health care system. The growing need for personnel within the health care system who can provide medical and cultural translation, health education, information and referrals, intake and eligibility services, case management and advocacy to diverse patient populations has formalized the CHW position in many health care settings. This article will describe the functions and attributes of the Community Health Worker based on the findings of a systematic eight-county survey of the San Francisco Bay Area in 1996.
The Pew Health Professions Commission cites a resurgence of Community Health Workers in the 1990s. 22 This can be attributed to a number of factors. The first is the massive structural change in the U.S. health care system. 8,22-24 The salient trends driving reform focus on both the delivery and the financing of health care. Delivery systems are reorganizing to make prevention and primary care their emphasis and to move to lower-cost delivery settings (ambulatory care, home care) with less expensive providers. Further, the move towards managed care, with reimbursement provided in capitated monthly payments, means a shift from a cost unaware, fee-for-service system to a cost-conscious one. In many states Medicaid patients are being shifted to managed-care settings. 23,25 A second national trend affecting the renewed interest in Community Health Workers is the increasing diversity of the U.S. population. The nationality, ethnicity and linguistic make-up of this country has changed more dramatically in the past decade than at any time in the twentieth century. 26 For example, by the year 2000, one third of the population nationally will be people of color. California is often referred to as a "bell-weather" state for the nation as a whole. 27 In our state, half of the population will be Asian or Latino by the year 2000. The 1990 Census found that 33% of Asian/Pacific Islanders and 28% of Latinos in California were linguistically isolated. 28 In one metropolitan area in California, for example, 1% of the registered nurses are Latina while in many areas up to 65% of patients are Latino/a. 29 Additionally, California is the most diverse state in the nation, making it a matter of great complexity to bridge the language and culture gap between patients and health professionals who remain overwhelmingly monolingual and white. For instance, there are 120 languages spoken in the county of Los Angeles alone. 36 While the ultimate effects of these changes on the
quality and accessibility of health care are yet to be seen, the emergence of Community
Health Workers as an important asset to the health care team is being widely acknowledged.
After reviewing a substantial body of research, the Pew Health Professions Commission
concluded that "the widespread incorporation of CHWs into the health care delivery
system offers unparalleled opportunities to improve the delivery of preventive and primary
care to America's diverse communities." 8 In addition, the
Centers for Disease Control published a two-volume series which annotates the research
literature describing and evaluating the use of CHWs/Lay Health Advisors. 30
Literature Review The contributions of CHWs to primary and preventive services are well documented. Many studies have shown the ability of CHWs to do effective preventive work, reduce cultural and linguistic barriers to care, help patients successfully navigate in complex health systems, and improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of care. After an extensive literature review, Witmer et al. cited 28 studies in the U.S. showing CHW success in: increasing access to prenatal care and other preventive care services, linking mentally ill and HIV infected people to needed services; increasing detection of breast and cervical cancer; increasing rates of immunization; decreasing low birth weight and infant mortality; controlling hypertension; and facilitating smoking cessation. 8 The Kaiser Commission on the Future of Medicaid cited an important series of studies that compares health outcomes of care given in a traditional medical care setting with care given in a community-responsive setting including use of CHWs. Care given in the more community-responsive setting yielded better health outcomes. 31 The unnecessary use of costly emergency room services is a major financial drain on health providers. One large hospital in New York found that 80% of pediatric emergency admissions were not emergencies, while primary care clinics were underutilized. To address this problem the hospital employed CHWs to help families connect with primary care. Non-urgent emergency room visits by adults decreased by 42% and broken appointment rates at primary-care clinics dropped from 50% to 11%. Patient medical care usage shifted from high use of emergency rooms and low use of clinics to high use of clinics and low use of emergency rooms. 32 There are other social benefits from the role of CHWs in the health care workforce. The profound changes taking place in health care are being paralleled by an equally profound transformation in the labor market. Entry level manufacturing and industrial jobs that have traditionally provided a ladder out of poverty for low-skilled individuals have all but disappeared. They have been replaced by service-sector jobs, few of which offer a family-supporting wage, full-time employment, benefits or a career path. 25 Health care is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. labor market according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between 1990 and 2005, the health care industry is expected to provide more than 25% of all new jobs. Many of these occupations are considered entry level for largely unskilled persons, offering both living wages and career opportunities. Of the 30 occupations projected to show greatest growth by 2005, 11 are in the health field and five are entry level. 33 Community Health Worker jobs provide career opportunity and advancement for low income people without strong academic credentials. According to the Pew Health Professions Commission, although the benefits of CHWs have been recognized in relation to the needs of the poor and underserved, there are several barriers to the use of such workers by the health care delivery system as a whole. First among these barriers is the lack of a standard definition and conceptualization of who Community Health Workers are and what they do. Limited data exists on the number of CHWs in the field, how they are used, what is their scope of work or how they are funded. 8,22 To address this barrier, this article presents the results of a systematic survey of health care providers in eight counties in Northern California to gather descriptive data on the roles, backgrounds and working conditions of CHWs.
Methodology A mail and telephone survey was conducted of health care providers in eight Northern California counties. The objectives of the survey were to determine: a) the proportion of health care employers in the population that employ Community Health Workers; b) the total number of CHWs employed; c) the number of CHWs projected to be hired in the next three years, to enable a projection of demand for CHWs in the overall population; d) a profile of CHW positions describing kind of work and level of pay and training; e) a profile of CHWs in regards to education, ethnicity and gender; and f) the barriers to wider employment of CHWs. A stratified random sample was drawn from the population
of health care service providers in eight San Francisco Bay Area counties in Northern
California. This population was stratified by type of health care organization including
HMOs, Private Hospitals, National Organizations, County Health Departments, and Community
Based Organizations/Clinics. (CBOs/Clinics include non-profit and for-profit clinics or
other health agencies that offer direct care.) Random samples of approximately 50% were
drawn from the HMO, Private Hospital, National Organization, and CBO/Clinic lists. Because
of the small number of County Health Departments, all were included to ensure adequate
sampling. The survey was sent to the individuals identified in the preliminary phone calls. Because of the absence of a formal or widely recognized job description for CHWs, a definition of CHWs was included in the survey and referred to whenever there was a question as to who qualified as a CHW within an agency. Two weeks after the initial mailing all non-respondents were called. Three weeks after the initial mailing all non-respondents were sent another copy of the survey and a follow-up cover letter. In the third through fifth weeks after the initial mailing, all non-respondents were called five more times. After six attempts to reach potential respondents by phone, efforts were terminated.
Survey Results Of the 269 organizations in the sample 76% (197) responded to the survey. One hundred twenty six (47%) reported employing no CHWs, 71 (26%) either employ CHWs or plan to hire CHWs in the next three years, 43 (16%) were duplicates or had disconnected numbers, and 29 (11%) did not respond. Of the 26% who hire CHWs, 87% (n=62) currently employ CHWs and 13% (n=9) do not currently employ CHWs but plan to hire CHWs in the next three years. From the total group of those who report currently employing CHWs and those who do not currently employ but have plans to hire in the near future, 80% project hiring CHWs (including turnover) in the next three years and 58% project creating new CHW positions in the next three years. See Table 1, (Columns I-VI) for adjusted population and hiring status by organization type. Figure 2 A total of 504 CHWs are working in the 62 agencies reporting employing CHWs. Of these, 65% are full time and 35% are part time. County Health Departments are the biggest employers (63%), followed by CBOs/Clinics (35%). As mentioned earlier, of the 35 HMOs in the 8 counties, only one of the HMOs with a MediCal contract employs CHWs, and they report employing only two. Forty-four percent of agencies pay full time entry level CHWs between $20,001 and $25,000 per year (Figure 3). Ninety-three percent of agencies provide health benefits for full-time CHWs. Sixty-three percent of respondents report that the CHWs within their organizations are members of a collective bargaining unit, with eighty-eight percent of the unionized CHWs being government employees. Sixty percent of agencies report that the CHW position has a career ladder or series within the CHW classification. Figure 3 Table 2: Funding Sources for CHW Positions
Figure 4
To determine in what areas CHWs will be working in the future, respondents were asked to identify in which health area they project an increasing number of CHWs. Eleven agencies project an increase in MCH/Perinatal, 10 in HIV/AIDS/STDS and nine in Primary Care.
Table 3: Valued Community Health Worker Skills
Ninety-one percent of respondents indicate that budget constraints are a barrier to wider employment of CHWs. The other barriers to wider employment were: a lack of acceptance by other professionals (40%); difficulty in supervising employees with uneven preparation (33%); a lack of acceptance of the CHW field because of the absence of certification or other assurance of competency (32%); a lack of acceptance by clients because of a concern about "deskilling" (11%). The CHW field is growing. The organizations surveyed
estimate hiring 263 CHWs in the next three years. Forty-two percent of these hires are new
positions and the rest are due to staff turnover. Projections for the entire population
based on these hiring estimates indicate total projected hires of 375 CHWs (Standard
Error=30.01) in the next 3 years in these eight counties. One-hundred-forty-two of these
hires will be in Health Departments, 201 will be in CBOs/Clinics, 26 in National
Organizations and 6 in MediCal contracted HMOs. Seventy (Standard Error=22.13) CHW
positions are projected to be eliminated in the next three years. These positions are
mostly grant funded (91%) and all are within CBOs/Clinics. Discussion One fourth of the respondents to our survey report hiring CHWS. There are two reasons this is a conservative estimation of the percentage. First, because of the absence of a standard job description and job title, we had to rely on respondents to read the definition provided and correctly identify workers in their agencies as CHWs even if they are called by different names. Also, in at least two counties the number of mental health CHWs reported is low due to the fact that the Mental Health Departments contract out 60-70% of their work. Those CHWs hired by the contracting agencies are not represented in this survey because the health department does not list them as employees and the agencies are not identified as service providers that would be covered elsewhere in the survey population. The majority (83%) of CHWs in this sample are employed by the County Health Department and by Community Based Organizations. This is in keeping with the fact that CHWs currently work primarily with the health needs of the poor, underserved, minority and high-risk populations. Health Department and CBOs are the sites where this population typically receives its health care. Furthermore, the only HMO which currently employs CHWs is the one which has the Medicaid contract. This supports the assertion that CHW are not integrated into the health delivery system as a whole but work in "poor peoples' health care" instead. Our data show that there are growing opportunities for CHWs. In the next 3 years, the largest percentage (52%) appears to be in the public health department and the largest number of actual jobs (n=201) appears to be in the CBOs. In our sample, HMOs did not hire CHWs. We speculate that this may change as HMOs begin to sign up Medicaid managed care populations. One of the largest HMOs in the country has hired CHWs to work with its Medicaid contract patients for over two decades with positive evaluations in terms of health outcomes and cost effectiveness. 34 Further, the data on HMO and CHWs may be misleading because of the fact that HMOs may in the future subcontract to CBOs and clinics to serve their Medicaid patients. Often these CBOs and clinics have CHWs on their staff. The Pew Health Professions Commission identified lack of secure funding as a major barrier to the expanded use of CHWs. 8,22 Our research confirms that almost half of the CHWs in our sample are being funded by grants. "Soft money" funding often means that CHW programs and jobs do not survive beyond the termination of the grant award. It is noteworthy that 55% of the CHWs were on "hard money" with most of that coming from City and County dollars. The majority of CHWs are women (66%) of color (77%) with a high-school degree or less (58%). Most work full time as CHWs (65%), receive benefits (93%), belong to a union (63%) and have the possibility for career upward mobility within a CHW series (60%). Forty-four percent of our sample earn an annual salary of $20,00 to $25,000 with 30% making more than $25,001. Although this is not a family wage in the Bay Area, this salary is quite attractive when compared to the U.S. Department of Commerce's national data showing that women with high school degrees earn on average $11,089 per year (includes full and part-time). 35 The issues of the training and role of the CHWs as a member of the heath care team are challenging. As Pew suggests, while it is important to define the field and develop agreed-upon competencies, it is also important to note that too much "professionalization" may result in CHWs losing their effectiveness within their communities. 8 For a number of reasons, the results of this survey
must be interpreted with caution when generalizing to other parts of the country. In our
study we found 27% of all CHWs were working in AIDS. The Bay Area is one of the areas
hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic; therefore, the ability to generalize this finding to
other areas less affected by the epidemic is questionable. Also, California has one of the
most diverse populations in the country and is home to many immigrants from both Asia and
Mexico. For this reason, the need for CHWs may be greater in Northern California then in
other, more homogeneous areas nationally. Further research needs to be conducted to see if
the profile of people in CHW jobs and the roles they assume in Northern California are
similar to those in other parts of the nation. Implications for Practice The current financial reforms in health care and the
pressures on the health care delivery system to be more culturally and linguistically
appropriate are providing expanded opportunities for Community Health Workers. The Pew
Health Commission has made several important recommendations which need to be acted upon.
They include the need to better integrate Community Health Workers into the health care
delivery system, to provide federal funding to empirically document the contributions they
make in the reformed health care system, to disseminate the experiences of existing CHW
programs and to provide CHWs with continuing education, professional recognition and
career advancement. 8,22 References
Acknowledgments This report was prepared by: Mary Beth Love, Ph.D.,
Co-Principal Investigator, Chair, Department of Health Education, San Francisco State
University We gratefully acknowledge the
contribution of those who worked on the program in 1995 - 96: Special acknowledgment to Yvonne
Lacey and Eva Torres, founding Our gratitude to leaders of City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State University whose support makes our work possible: Dean Natalie Berg, Director Robert Gabriner and Provost Frances Lee (CCSF) and Dr. Paul Fonteyn, Assoc.Vice President, Dean Don Zingale, Interim Assoc. Dean Amy Hittner (SFSU). Our thanks to all those who responded to
the survey that resulted in this Adjunct Faculty 1996-97 The Appendix contains "CHWs: Integral
Members of the Health Care Workforce," by Anne Witmer et.al, from the American
Journal of Public Health 1995. Education (FIPSE) U.S. Department of Education, the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act 1990, the Bernard Osher Foundation, and the Chancellor's Office of the California Community College System. Note: As this edition of this report is intended for a community and professional audience, not a research audience, the extended discussion of research methods will appear as a footnote. Pie charts have been included for easy reading; numerical charts are also available on request. (c) Accepted for publication in Health Education Quarterly |
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