Wichita State University’s Community Engagement Institute (CEI) is working to put a spotlight on an underutilized and underrecognized profession: community health workers (CHW).

“Community health workers are defined as someone who provides a direct link between a community that they are part of and the health and social service systems,” said Alissa Rankin, public health project manager at CEI. “They are really from the community that they're serving. They may not have any formal health or medical training, but they have lived experience.”

Recently, Rankin’s team at CEI embarked on a project with the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund to better understand the CHW landscape and develop an interactive map to help Kansans locate CHWs across the state.

“Our project with the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund was to try to find out where community health workers are in Kansas, what perceptions are about them, and who is utilizing them. We also wanted to find out about their value and how people are funding their positions,” Rankin said.

To better explain the role of CHWs, Rankin gives the example of a pregnant woman who is new to the United States and might not understand the health care system.

“Maybe there’s a woman in her community who has given birth and had to go to the hospital and understands how to navigate the hospital system,” she said. “This person can kind of guide her community members through that. They act not only as a linguistic connection, but they also act as a cultural connection and cultural tie to the system.”

CHWs might not provide any actual health services, but they act as a bridge between the health care community and their own communities.

“They’re providing culturally competent services, creating a connection and increasing trust between that population and the medical profession,” said Dr. Sarah Jolley, evaluation projects coordinator for CEI.

Through surveys, interviews and focus groups, CEI outlined the strengths and benefits of utilizing CHWs.

According to the report, the integration of CHWs into the health care delivery system is associated with cost-effective and sustainable care, and individually designed care from CHWs leads to improved chronic disease control, mental health, quality of care, and reduced hospitalizations.

Jolley said CHWs assist people in their communities with things like after-surgery protocols or managing chronic illnesses.

“There's a return on investment,” she said. “There is money saved by people not having to be readmitted to the hospital after surgeries and for ongoing types of issues like diabetes or cancer or heart disease.”

CEI’s team also analyzed how to monetize the work of CHWs in a in a way that makes the medical field and the medical profession take note, and Jolley said there’s no doubt that CHWs promote cost savings and a healthier community.

“They can help us achieve better health outcomes by using them with the populations they are connected to,” Jolley said.

Rankin said the study highlights the importance of CHWs, because unfortunately, community health workers are just not recognized as a whole.

“A lot of organizations said that health care professionals didn't know what CHWs were, and community members didn't know who they were either,” Rankin said. However, “when people did find out who they were, they wanted more of them.”

Rankin said many organizations rely on grants to fund CHW positions, and Kansas does not currently have a way to bill for CHW services.

“Right now, CHWs are funded primarily by grants, and grants might be around for a year or two, and then they go away,” she said. “That's not a very good situation for a person having a job. It’s about trying to figure out better ways to incorporate CHWs into operating budgets and really recognize their value.”

“The lack of funding has led to a scarcity of CHWs, and the handful of CHWs available across the state are “basically being worked to death,” Rankin said.

For this reason, the Kansas Community Health Worker Coalition has been formed to increase recognition and provide education and training resources for current and prospective CHWs.

“We're working to expand the profession,” Rankin said. “And CEI recently started a new education program that helps to standardize what community health workers know and what kind of services they are providing.”

Jolley and Rankin share a hope that this research will aid in the expansion of the CHW profession, acting as a complement to CHW work that has already been completed. If you would like to learn more about the Kansas CHW workforce, please contact us at alissa.rankin@wichita.edu.