Community Health Workers

Why join the Hub

Why join the Hub

Health Care Access Now trains and hires Community Health Workers (CHW)—but that is not all. We are also a Certified Pathways Community HUB (Hub) for the Cincinnati area. Which means we partner with agencies to help them adopt the “pathways hub model”—the same model HCAN uses to serve our clients.   The Hub model The…

Good influence, great results: HCAN client story

Good influence, great results: HCAN client story

Stephanie had lost her home. She and her family were living in a hotel and didn’t have regular access to nutritious food. To complicate matters, Stephanie suffers from a chronic illness that affects her daily. She needs multiple medications to manage her condition, and when she’s sick, she can’t work. Enter Jessica Hines, Community Health…

Health is not just determined by health care: Surviving isn’t enough 
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Health is not just determined by health care: Surviving isn’t enough 

The study of the intersection of social sciences and physical health has revealed that good health outcomes are profoundly affected by life and demographic factors. According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, there are five domains into which social determinants of health…

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