Community Health Worker Q&A: How passion leads to compassion

Community Health Workers (CHWs) serve a vital purpose in the health of our communities. Because they often live and work in the same communities as those they support and are familiar with local culture, language and other dynamics, CHWs help improve care and connect people with the proper health care and community resources. They also understand what people in under-resourced communities need and how certain medical conditions may affect their long-term health.

There is a need for more CHWs who can help communities thrive. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employment of health education specialists and community health workers is projected to grow 16 percent over the next 10 years.

To support our communities and help Medicaid members build careers, Aetna Better Health? launched one of our country’s first CHW training programs offered by a Medicaid health plan. To learn about its impact and share the value CHWs deliver, I spoke with two individuals with a passion for bringing quality care to their communities: Mercedes Cruz-Duque, who spearheads Aetna’s CHW training program in Texas, and Norma Hernandez, a community health worker trained as a CHW before the program was launched. Below are our conversations (Note: these interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.):

Q&A: Norma Hernandez, Community Health Worker

Kelly: So, what made you want to be a Community Health Worker?

Norma: Even before I became a licensed CHW, I helped my family and the community with health needs and learning about diabetes. I enjoy helping my family and my community get and stay healthy. And as a diabetic, I enjoy teaching other diabetics how to manage their health and blood sugar. I’ve also learned a number of valuable skills since becoming a CHW, such as learning to properly take blood pressure, which has proven invaluable.

Once I started training, CHW work felt natural to me — I knew I had the knowledge to succeed.

Kelly: Why did CHW work feel natural to you?

Norma: As a caregiver to a family member — a diabetic with high blood pressure who had a stroke — I work to learn all I can about their condition, including what emergency signs to look for. Educating myself and knowing what steps to take if something happens helps me better care for them.

Kelly: Has your family experience helped you work with people in the community?

Norma: I love helping people every day, at any time. For instance, I recently went to the health department to fill out paperwork and noticed a man struggling to fill out paperwork. No one was assisting him, so I offered to help and mentioned I was a community health worker, showing him and the social services workers my credentials.

That stranger said I was his angel. I felt good. We’ve since become friends.

Kelly: What a great story. Is that how you find most of the people you help?

Norma: I mostly help people through word of mouth, like when a friend knows someone needing help. I also give my number out if people have questions. My number is not private. I try to help where I can.

I speak Spanish and English, which is important in this part of Texas. When I’m helping people, I don’t like to give up. I help people find resources and share warning signs of diabetes as a diabetic myself. It often starts with, “I need help with this paperwork,” and then when we start talking, I can help them with additional health and social services problems they are having.  

Kelly: How do you get people to open up?

Norma: I talk to people wherever I go. Being multi-lingual helps me communicate better with more people, especially Hispanics needing translation assistance.

Kelly: Thanks for sharing your views and for your exciting work.

Q&A: Mercedes Cruz-Duque, Certified Community Health Worker Instructor

Kelly: Tell readers about the program in Texas. What exactly does your program do?

Mercedes: We train members of the community to become community health workers. They learn to provide culturally appropriate health education, help people get the care they need and provide informal counseling on health topics. Because CHWs live in the community, they can bring information to where it’s needed most. We help our community live the healthiest life possible. Once trained, you can get licensed by the Texas Department of Health for two years and it is something you can make a livelihood doing. The training in Texas takes 160 hours. While the role is not clinical, community health workers get some clinical knowledge — like CPR and taking glucose and blood pressure. We also teach people basic computer literacy.   

As an educator, I work with a diverse group of people and teach in both English and Spanish. I also identify funding opportunities, both public and private, to grow the program.

Kelly: It’s a great program. So, what makes someone a good CHW?

Mercedes: Being a people person and being able to connect with them is so important, along with having patience and compassion. Our best CHWs often come from low-income families and bring that lived experience to the work they do. Understanding the process of filling out paperwork for social assistance, where the food banks are (and what they stock), where the most efficient social services offices are and what the exact requirements are to be eligible often makes those workers more effective at their job.

It also helps to know your surroundings. When I first became a CHW, I moved every year to learn about the different neighborhoods and get a better and more nuanced understanding of my community. 

Kelly: Where there’s passion, compassion follows. Thanks for the work you do training people as community health workers. It inspires me deeply how you’re helping more people decide to break into this line of work and you’re helping more people recognize firsthand how valuable and emotionally satisfying this profession is. CHWs truly change people’s health and wellness outcomes and make a difference in people’s lives. That’s the greatest gift you can give someone.

CVS Health recently launched the Community Equity Alliance, a new initiative that will help expand the community health worker workforce, helping to increase access to care in under-resourced communities. Learn more about the CVS Health Community Equity Alliance here.