Advertisement
  • National News
  • State News
  • Contact Us
  • Submit Content
  • Subscribe
Subscribe For $2.50/month
Print Editions
Salem Times Register
  • News Categories
    • Local Stories
    • School
    • Church
    • Sports
    • State News
    • National News
    • Courthouse
      • Deeds
  • Obituaries
  • Opinion
  • Legals
  • Spiritual
    • Parabola
    • Transcendental Meditation
    • The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
    • Southern Baptist
  • eEdition
  • Classifieds
  • Contact Us
  • My Account
  • Login
  • faq
No Result
View All Result
Salem Times Register
No Result
View All Result
Salem Times Register
No Result
View All Result

CDC awards Virginia $4.3M to scale up community health workers to support Covid-19 response and recovery

Mountain Media, LLC by Mountain Media, LLC
September 16, 2021
in Local Stories
0
0
SHARES
12
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded more than $4.3 million to the Institute for Public Health Innovation (IPHI), which applied for funding on behalf of the Virginia Department of Health and a host of collaborating partners, to expand the roles and capacity of community health workers (CHWs) in supporting COVID-19 response and recovery in the Commonwealth. The funded effort entitled, Community Health Workers for a Healthy Virginia (CHWs for a Healthy VA), will also explore innovative financing strategies to help build and sustain the CHW workforce long-term. The CDC grant is part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act of 2020.

Community health workers are front-line public health workers who are trusted members of and/or have an unusually close understanding of the communities they serve. These trusting relationships enable CHWs to conduct community outreach, provide health education, offer social support, and facilitate access to community resources effectively.

As required by the CDC, the Virginia initiative will focus on geographic areas of Virginia with high rates of COVID-19 identified by project partners. Those areas include parts of the Richmond metro region, Norfolk, Portsmouth, the Danville area, and the Southwest Virginia communities served by the Mount Rogers Health District. Through the grant, community-based organizations, health care providers, local health departments, and other partners will hire and deploy CHWs, and IPHI will assist with training and provide technical assistance. Public health approaches utilizing CHWs will address gaps in access to COVID-related services, such as testing, vaccination, and quarantine support, and respond to community needs that have been exacerbated by COVID-19, such as access to health and mental health care, housing services, and food assistance.

“For a variety of reasons COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on some communities including urban African American and LatinX communities and rural communities in Southwest Virginia,” said State Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver, M.D., M.A. “Community health workers on the frontlines, embedded in communities, have a unique view of community and individual needs. Developing the community health worker workforce has been a priority for Virginia for many years, and this grant is a big boost to our efforts.”

“The Institute for Public Health Innovation is honored to lead this important effort on behalf of Virginia Department of Health and so many other partners across Virginia,” said IPHI President and CEO Michael Rhein. “It’s exciting to see the federal government make these investments in CHWs in Virginia and across the country. CHWs are an essential aspect of any state’s action to eliminate disparities and inequities in public health.”

IPHI, VDH, and their partners will work within priority communities and populations to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, support community recovery and resilience, and implement demonstration projects to test financing models to sustain CHWs and community resource providers. The goals for pilot communities include increasing primary care service use and access to community services among high-risk populations, decreasing emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and reducing healthcare spending. CHWs for a Healthy VA will support the front-line pandemic response and recovery efforts. It will also promote long-term community health by creating replicable and sustainable financing models that will strengthen and permanently reinforce the CHW-workforce throughout Virginia. 

The CARES Act allocated funds to the CDC to train and deploy CHWs to respond to COVID-19 efforts and to build and reinforce community resilience. The CHWs for a Healthy VA will serve more than 1.6 million residents in Virginia. 

 

  • Submitted by Brookie Crawford, Public Information Officer 

 

Sign up to our newsletter

Enter your email address to receive weekly emails.

You will receive a confirmation email for your subscription. Please check your inbox and spam folder to complete the confirmation process.
Some fields are missing or incorrect!
Lists
Previous Post

Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts and Virginia Department of Health announce more local testing locations 

Next Post

First Robotic Esophagectomy performed in Southwest Virginia at LewisGale Medical Center

Next Post
First Robotic Esophagectomy performed in Southwest Virginia at LewisGale Medical Center

First Robotic Esophagectomy performed in Southwest Virginia at LewisGale Medical Center

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • National News
  • State News
  • Contact Us
  • Submit Content
  • Subscribe
Questions? Call us at 304-647-5724

  • Login
Forgot Password?
Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.
body::-webkit-scrollbar { width: 7px; } body::-webkit-scrollbar-track { border-radius: 10px; background: #f0f0f0; } body::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb { border-radius: 50px; background: #dfdbdb }
No Result
View All Result
  • News Categories
    • Local Stories
    • School
    • Church
    • Sports
    • State News
    • National News
    • Courthouse
      • Deeds
  • Obituaries
  • Opinion
  • Legals
  • Spiritual
    • Parabola
    • Transcendental Meditation
    • The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
    • Southern Baptist
  • eEdition
  • Classifieds
  • Contact Us
  • My Account
  • Login
  • faq