Community Health Workers

Boundaries as self-care: How caregivers (like CHWs) avoid burnout
|

Boundaries as self-care: How caregivers (like CHWs) avoid burnout

Community Health Workers (CHWs) see people in crisis every day. Program participants might not have enough to eat or a safe place to live. They might be suffering from a chronic illness. It’s rewarding for CHWs to watch program participants make positive changes and overcome barriers. Those changes can have a profound effect on community…

Self-care at any age: For the young—and the young-at-heart
|

Self-care at any age: For the young—and the young-at-heart

The Community Health Workers (CHWs) that work one-on-one with Health Care Access Now (HCAN)’s clients give so much of themselves. “If we have 30 clients, they have 30 plus different situations,” says Jessica Hines, HCAN CHW. That requires her to bring all her knowledge and ingenuity to every encounter. She wants to do the best…

How Community Health Workers help clients establish medical homes
| | |

How Community Health Workers help clients establish medical homes

Health Care Access Now (HCAN)’s clients often face obstacles—like lack of childcare or transportation—that keep them from seeing doctors regularly. In other words, they don’t have a medical home.  Lynniece Scurry, Community Health Worker (CHW) for HCAN, says it’s important to help her clients find a primary care physician that can act as a medical home because…

What HCAN Does with your donations
| |

What HCAN Does with your donations

Everyone deserves to live a healthy life. And there’s more to health than just exercising, eating right, and making good choices. It’s about having regular access to a doctor, being able to afford medications for chronic diseases, and overcoming barriers that can prevent people from having good health outcomes. Health Care Access Now (HCAN) trains…

CHWs work with clients to improve housing situations
| |

CHWs work with clients to improve housing situations

“Housing should be fair for everyone. Even if you need low-income housing or are coming through a housing program, you should still expect a standard,” says Giacoma Telich, Community Health Worker (CHW) for Health Care Access Now (HCAN). Many factors contribute to whether housing is suitable, she states. The bare minimum is “housing that does…

Community Health Workers’ Housing Educations
| | |

Community Health Workers’ Housing Educations

Health Care Access Now (HCAN) trains and dispatches Community Health Workers (CHWs) to assist vulnerable people in the Cincinnati community so they can achieve good health outcomes. Using the Pathways Community HUB model (HUB), CHWs identify and help remove clients’ obstacles to a healthy life. CHWs provide Educations on each of these barriers.  One such…

Tessa Johnson: Building relationships to make a difference
| |

Tessa Johnson: Building relationships to make a difference

During the first year Tessa Johnson worked as a paraprofessional for the Cincinnati Public School system, she felt overwhelmed. She knew the children she helped needed more than just school support. Understanding she couldn’t reach everyone was a tough pill to swallow.  But she persevered, and now she gets messages from former students thanking her…

April Biggers: Vital part of the community
| |

April Biggers: Vital part of the community

April Biggers joined the Community Health Worker (CHW) program at Health Care Access Now (HCAN) on the advice of a friend—now co-worker—who raved about the position. “I knew I wanted a career, not just a job. I wanted somewhere I could grow and flourish. I wanted to be able to make a difference,” she says….