ABSTRACT
Community Health Workers are gaining recognition as a valuable, newly emergent public health workforce. This article describes a qualitative study that generated a snapshot of Community Health Worker employment in Rhode Island, gathered collective wisdom and stakeholders' perspectives about how to pay for a community health workforce, and highlighted promising opportunities to grow and sustain the field. This article summarizes the study's findings, and discusses its implications. The full report is available at: http://www.health.ri.gov/ publications/reports/CommunityHealthWorkersInRhode Island.pdf
Subject(s)
Community Health Services , Community Health Workers/education , Employment/economics , Employment/trends , Humans , Qualitative Research , Rhode Island , WorkforceABSTRACT
"The goal of community health teams is to develop and implement care models that integrate clinical and community health promotion and preventive services for patients." -Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)1 Eleven community health teams (CHTs) operate in various geographies within Rhode Island. Physicians and payers refer their highest-risk patients to CHTs that serve as community extenders. Community health workers and others work to link referred individuals to primary care and work to address the other determinants affecting their health, such as safe housing. Since much of health is driven by factors outside of the healthcare setting, CHTs compliment the work of physicians within the office environment. Transforming practices and addressing both the physical and behavioral needs of patients simultaneously is key to CHT success. This article attempts to quantify the expanding need for CHTs within Rhode Island and describes ways in which CHTs as a practice transformation resource may be leveraged by providers. [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2016-10.asp].
Subject(s)
Community Health Services/standards , Community Health Workers/standards , Health Services Needs and Demand/statistics & numerical data , Patient Care Team/standards , Adult , Child , Community Health Services/supply & distribution , Humans , Public Health , Referral and Consultation , Rhode IslandABSTRACT
The transitioning of youth from pediatric to adult care systems is often fraught with discontinuity, miscommunication and gaps in care. This is most significant for youth with special health care needs. A panel discussion on transitioning youth to adult care systems that was part of a learning collaborative held by The RI Care Transformation Collaborative (CTC) is presented here, illustrated by a pertinent case of a youth with type 1 diabetes. [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2016-08.asp, free with no login].
Subject(s)
Health Services Needs and Demand , Transition to Adult Care/standards , Adolescent , Humans , Rhode Island , Young AdultABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A growing population of adolescents with special healthcare needs is aging into adulthood. These emerging adults face the transition challenges of their healthy peers but also potentially heightened risks and challenges related to their conditions. We describe the process of developing a pilot program to support healthcare services for emerging adults with chronic conditions and present preliminary data on utilization. RESULTS: An outpatient multidisciplinary consult model was developed based on patient, family and physician feedback. Patients with diverse conditions were equally referred from primary care, subspecialists and families and community agencies. Services provided included needs assessments (100%), referral to adult physicians (77%), care coordination (52%) and referrals to adult community services (10%). Clinical billing did not fully support the cost of providing services. CONCLUSION: The pilot program offered multidisciplinary transition services that were utilized by a diverse patient population. Local and national resources for health care transition are provided.
