Lessons Learned: Multiple Utah Community Health Worker Projects

Authors:

Lynette Phillips (Presenter)
Utah Department of Health

Shellee Smith, Utah Department of Health

Public Health Statement: Effectiveness of CHW projects dependant on personal motivators

Purpose: To increase the number of rural Utah women receiving B&C screenings, community health workers (CHWs) were reimbursed for outreach. Five CHWs were trained in three of Utah’s local health districts (LHDs) for varying lengths of time. CHWs were paid $100 for group presentations and $50 per woman receiving breast and cervical (B&C) screening services. The goal was to recruit 80–180 patients from Bear River and 40–90 from TriCounty Health District. Due to multiple issues (including loss of screening providers), recruitment ended early in these LHDs. Two CHWs were then piloted in Utah County, one Hispanic and one Pacific Islander. Along with increased screening numbers, the objective was to establish the best recruitment methods.

Methods/Approach: Utah County tracked all CHW-recruited women. Monthly data included strategies, successes, and barriers for each method. CHWs from Bear River and TriCounty submitted tracking sheets. Completion of B&C appointments were verified using the program database.

Results: Bear River and TriCounty CHWs recruited for two months in 2015. Five group (15+) presentations were given with 13 women recruited. In Utah County, the Pacific Islander CHW recruited three women and the Hispanic CHW contacted 234 women; 89 completed a B&C appointment.

Conclusions/Implications: Barriers identified impacting success included: lack of supervisory staff time, locating target women, and low motivation from reimbursement structure. Utah County indicated most successful strategies varied by target group: volunteer clinics, health fairs for the target population, and religious group presentations.