Rachel Stahl
Appearances
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
Yeah, I really think that often people, when they go to their doctor or even the therapist or any other licensed professional, they get recommendations from those professionals. And it's often very difficult for any of us to understand how to take those recommendations and apply those to our lives. And there really isn't enough time in the clinic for a provider to to really go there with someone.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
And so, you know, your doctor will tell you you need to get exercise. And one of our clients or patients or participants in our programs might think, well, I don't have tennis shoes. I don't have a membership to the gym. I don't understand what you're talking about. I have all these things going on in my life. I don't have time for this, whatever.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
And the community health worker can sit down with them and say, hey, what are you already doing? You're already taking your dog for a walk. That's awesome. What if you just went a little bit further? Sort of saying you don't need to join a fancy gym. You don't need to buy any new equipment. Let's talk about how you can get more active in your life in a way that actually works for you.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
And so the community health worker isn't recommending exercise, the community health worker is taking the recommendation from the provider and really translating it to the real life of the participant.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
So it's that deep knowledge of where a client patient participant is coming from and sort of that empathy and listening and time to say like, hey, everybody can get a little bit more activity in their day. Let's talk about it. Let's make a plan that can really work for you. And then I can provide support and accountability
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
And then tell your doctor what you're doing, because often a lot of times people don't know how to tell their doctor like, hey, I'm actually I made these changes and it's going really well or I made these changes. And here's a question I have. So also helping the person, you know, plan for their appointments with their doctors and say, like, here's what I've done since our last appointment.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
Here are the questions I have. And so it's really that translating recommendations from from licensed providers.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
Hi there, my name is Rachel Stahl and I am a community health worker. I currently work as the program manager for the HRSA program, the community health worker training program funded by HRSA for the Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance. I also work for the Minnesota community, the Winona Community Hub in Winona, Minnesota, which is also a program that utilizes community health workers.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
Well, I would actually kick this to Angela. Angela has been doing work with the National Association of Community Health Workers over the last several months. And so she's a lot more in tune with what's going on on the national level. I hate to put you on the spot, Angela, but do you want to answer that one?
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
Yeah, I think that the COVID-19 pandemic and the uprisings around the murder of George Floyd really helped people in Minnesota who have access to all the best Minnesota has to offer realize that there are a lot of inequities here in Minnesota and helped show all of us, again, that the health of those who are most affected by negative health outcomes really do affect the entire community.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
And so I think this is a really exciting opportunity to capitalize on sort of the things we learned from that and to say, having community health workers on the ground that people trusted embedded in many different communities in Minnesota to help give accurate timely information to communities around the COVID-19 pandemic saved countless lives.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
And I think that was at a point where we really didn't have community health workers everywhere that they need to be. And so we have this opportunity right now to
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
to get community health workers everywhere they need to be so that when things like the pandemic happen, every community in our state can have access to accurate information from someone that looks like them, someone they trust, and that we can all get through those things with less negative outcomes. So I think this is like a very, very exciting time in Minnesota where
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
sort of people in power and people with privilege are realizing how vital these kinds of roles are and there are is more opportunity more funding more support more momentum. And we can really build up an infrastructure, so that when things get hard again or when there's specific hardships in specific communities, we can really address them. from the grassroots.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
So I'm really, really excited about where Minnesota is at right now. And I think that, you know, our team and many other teams are really working hard to capitalize on that momentum and to move the CHW profession forward.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
I would say that community health workers are often from the communities that they're serving and they're real experts at being able to sort of speak the language of the medical and social service communities and also speak the languages of their communities, whether that be a language besides English or just a way of speaking, way of understanding the world. And so
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
they kind of help people in the community understand the systems. And I think at our best, we also help those systems understand those communities and how to best serve them. So we can sort of advocate for both and help those places understand each other so that those providers can really do work at the top of their licenses and can serve the communities more effectively.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
Because I think a lot of times... professionals who work in health or social services really, really, really want to do right by their patients and by their clients and by participants in their programs, and they may just not be able to understand how to do that.
Health Chatter
Community Health Workers
So community health workers can sort of translate between different ways of seeing the world, different ways of speaking, different ways of understanding.