renee
Things are moving forward in the certification world! Thanks to all who "attended" my presentation on CHW certification and training at the NMCHWA quarterly training. I've put my presentation up in the "download reports" section of this website, so those of you who weren't there (or were in Las Cruces and got cut off halfway through) can access it and review it. Thanks, too, to NMCHWA, UNM, and all the host sites for the use of teleconference technology. I know it wasn't perfect, but it was really nice not to have to drive 5 or 6 hours to a meeting!
After the presentation, there were some excellent questions. I responded as well as I could to those questions, but i'd like to have CHWs and employers weigh in.
- Are the requirements stringent enough?
- How will certification affect CHWs who live and work in Mexico, but who work with programs in New Mexico?
- How long will it take?
- How can CHWs help to move the process forward?
Reader Comments (2)
Renee
I don't think the requirements are strinent enough. I am basing my view on working with the Medicaid billing policies. I believe in order for Medicaid, HRSA, and other stakeholders,to buy into funding CHWs to be reimbursed for services that were previously provided by Bachelor level or certified individuals, The stakeholders would probably require CHWs to have a high school diploma or GED and be certified in the compentency for the services rendered.
When vested finacial funders look at providing funding for programs or reimbursement for services they equate quality of service to educational level of the individual providing the service. I would find it difficult to believe that if a Salud was going to reimburse for a service that they would at least require the minimumal education that they would expect from one of their own employees if not more.
Also having the financial burden for providing interpretation of documentation for the proof of services provided by the CHW who is mono-ligual Spanish be on the Employer, would be viewed on as a costly expense and the Employer would want a CHW that is bi-lingual. That alone would set the mono-lingual CHW at a disadvantage to employment opportunity for a sustainable job.
The bonus in asking the mono-lingual CHW to learn English or Spanish would give the CHW an added skill and leverage for now they would be viewed as having greater transferable skills, especially when the CHW has supervisors or fellow workers that could not speak the native language.
I would be willing to learn Spanish if the opportunity arose, even to learn the Medical terminology in Spanish, Just some of my ideas, Sandra
Hi Sandra,
Thanks for your post, and I'm sorry it's taken me a while to respond. Noticed that nobody else has weighed in. This is definitely an important question, and i'd really love to hear from some CHWs on it.
I think we need to be clear about two types of "requirements." First, there are requirements for entering the program. Second, there are requirements for earning certification.
The way the program is set up now, it allows CHWs to enter the program whether or not they have a high school diploma, GED, speak English, Spanish, or Swahili. i think that's important -- that the training be as widely available as possible. That's why we've offered a caveat to the high school diploma requirement (i.e. "or willingness to attain."). The council will need to determine exactly how that willingness would need to be demonstrated, but i think it will be something straightforward like enrollment in an ABE program. All of the employers i spoke with said that CHWs needed to have skills and critical thinking abilities equivalent to a high school diploma/GED. So that requirement is more likely to arise in the hiring process (just as the potential need for background and drug checks will arise then).
Re language/cultural competency. The FQHCs and any other Medicaid providers are required by their contracts to provide culturally and linguistically responsive health care. That is the responsibility of the employer. The CHW is simply one "tool" that the employer can use to provide that care. But the burden of responsibility is on the employer, not the CHW.
There's also a practical thing regarding language: I'd love to learn Spanish myself, but there's no way i could learn Spanish in 6 weeks. Maybe if i took an intensive immersion course i could figure out how to tell which is the men's and which the women's bathroom, but i certainly wouldn't be fluent. It takes time. The one thing that is practical is finding a way to offer CHWs access to language courses through the training programs.
Then (onto my second category) there are requirements for certification itself. My biggest questions there are around the training program itself. Is 240 hours (6 weeks) enough for someone to get a general grasp of what they need to know to work as a CHW? Is it feasible to develop a curriculum that allows CHWs to balance classroom time and experience themselves? While the third-party payor question is central, two even more important questions are: 1) Will standardized training and certification improve CHWs' ability to serve their communities? and 2) Will it benefit CHWs?
--renee