Primary Submission Category: Interventions/Programs
Collaborating with CHWs in coaching faith-based organizations in delivering evidence-based health promotion programs
Authors: Rebecca Selove, Jayla Berry,
Presenting Author: Rebecca Selove*
Community health workers (CHWs) are recognized as key members of the professional healthcare workforce. They play a pivotal role in providing health education for residents of disenfranchised communities and establishing and sustaining links between community residents and healthcare providers.
This presentation will provide an overview of the development of training and delivery of technical assistance (TA) by CHWs and academic researchers to enhance capacity in churches that serve African American communities in Nashville. Teams of church members are implementing evidence-based health promotion programs (EBPs) to reduce risk for chronic health conditions that affect African Americans disproportionately. The TA, also referred to as coaching, was developed to be delivered by dyads of CHWs and academic researchers, with the long-term goal of developing a manual that church teams can use to train new teams, including those from other congregations. The TA integrates the complementary implementation science tools of an implementation readiness survey based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), Getting To Outcomes, Stages of Implementation Completion (SIC), and Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) strategies. Training includes recorded lectures, role plays, review of video-taped TA sessions, and tailoring the TA to the EBP selected by the church team and their readiness survey results.
Each TA dyad prepares a structured evaluation of each TA session, and TA session transcripts are reviewed for GTO and ERIC elements. Each church team provides a brief anonymous evaluation of each session as well. Preliminary feedback from CHWs indicates that the approach fits well with their previous CBW training and orientation. Early feedback from church teams indicates that the TA is helpful and relevant. The training will be refined through iterative evaluation with CHWs and with feedback from participating church implementation teams.