The Community Health Worker (CHW) is emerging as a vital link between underserved communities and health care providers. As members of the communities they serve, community health workers provide culturally appropriate outreach, prevention, intervention, and treatment services. which are based in, and reflect, the value systems of the community.
In an attempt to legitimize this group of individuals and to ensure they are well trained, the State of Texas has chosen to use a certification process. The oversight for this process comes from the Department of State Health Services and a Community Health Worker Board.
Each CHW must complete 160 hours of course work on 8 core competencies as well as meet the general guidelines to be considered for certification. In many areas of the State, proximity to a training institution has been a major barrier for those seeking training. East Texas AHEC’s regional center located in LaMarque, Coastal AHEC, is currently certified as a training institution.
Coastal AHEC will provide CHW training to recruited individuals from the target population within the four identified AHEC centers. The course will be given in 2 cohorts with 10 CHW candidates per center trained in each group. This program would greatly increase the number of Certified CHW individuals available for employment and deployment within the target area.