County Health Dept announces community health worker training

Announcing:  Community Health Worker Training

The Calaveras County Public Health Department is recruiting residents to participate in a training to become Community Health Workers.  The Community Health Workers teach chronic condition self-management skills to people in their community.  “We are looking for adults that have a chronic condition or a partner/family member caring for someone with a chronic condition,” stated Dr. Dean Kelaita, County Health Officer.  The participants will learn a workshop model developed by Stanford University.  The strength of the model is that trainers are people in our community who also have chronic conditions but have been trained in self-management skills that include physical activity, reducing stress, healthy eating and communication with your doctor.  This is an opportunity for local residents to gain confidence in managing a chronic condition and building the skills with others.

“A chronic condition is a health problem like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes,” continued Dr. Kelaita.  Chronic conditions are ongoing medical conditions that can shorten lives if not managed.  They can limit the ability of people to engage in normal activities.  In California, 14 million adults [38%] live with at least one chronic condition.  More than half of them have multiple chronic conditions.

Helping patients to make good choices and practice healthy behaviors requires a relationship between the medical providers, patients and their families.  Medical providers rely on their patients to follow their recommendations but only have a short time to spend teaching their patients self-management skills.  In the workshop, people learn how to build the skills and gain the confidence they need to lead healthier lives.  The new Community Health Worker supports the information a patient receives from the medical provider.  Health or medical experience is not required to become a Community Health Worker.

The training is no-cost.  It requires a 4 day, 8 hours per day commitment of time to complete.  The training dates are Monday and Tuesday September 23^rd and 24^th and Thursday and Friday September 26^th and 27^th.  The Community Health Workers are trained and certified to teach self-management skills.  There is a commitment to conduct two workshop series a year in the communities where the workers live.  Each workshop has 6 sessions.   Each session is 2.5 hours.

You must register in advance to attend the training.  For registration information, contact the Mother Lode Office of Catholic Charities at 209.532.7632.  The Public Health Department training and workshops are funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the California Community Transformation Initiative, a project of the Public Health Institute.