WVSOM offering community health worker training
Apr. 12—The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine has launched an online platform to train community health workers.
Part of WVSOM's Center for Rural and Community Health, the Community Health Education Resource Person (CHERP) training platform is now available to the public. People who want to become community health workers, who work either for pay or as volunteers in association with social services and health care systems, may register for the training at my.wvsom.edu/visitors/cherp/cherpregister.cfm.
According to a WVSOM media release, community health workers are trained to help friends and neighbors develop a healthier lifestyle; answer basic questions about health, disease, nutrition, physical activity and health behaviors; and partner with doctors, nurses, dietitians, personal trainers and others in promoting health.
With the number of community health workers on the rise nationally, Haylee Heinsberg, director of education for WVSOM's Center for Rural and Community Health (CRCH) and one of the training program's creators, said community health workers can help reduce health disparities in underserved areas.
"There's been a national movement to expand the number of community health workers, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, because they can help with contact tracing (of the virus) in their communities," Heinsberg said in the media release. "Community health workers serve in a variety of capacities, including helping to improve people's health literacy, especially in places where health literacy is known to be low."
The CRCH's online platform operates through self-paced learning and, at present, offers training for CHERP Level 1 (Wellness). Expected to be added later are training for CHERP Level 2 (Health Promotion) and Level 3 (Disease Prevention and Management).
Registered participants may audit Level 1 training without charge, but trainees who complete the 20-hour program and score at least 80 percent have the option of paying $55 for a certificate of completion that will allow them to take future Level 2 or Level 3 training. Upon successful completion of all three training levels, participants will have learned all nationally recommended community health worker competencies.
WVSOM previously offered CHERP training on the school's Lewisburg campus and throughout West Virginia between 2012 and 2017. For some, it served as a gateway to a career in medicine.
"We had people who took our in-person training who said, 'I enjoyed it so much that I decided I wanted to go back to school to become a nurse,'" Heinsberg said.
WVSOM faculty member Brian Griffith, Ph.D., who served as a curriculum designer for the training platform, said community health workers play an important role in cultivating a healthier population.
"Our program provides an online learning modality for community health workers to better help the public," Griffith said. "Relationships between community health workers and those they serve are vital to improving outreach, community education, social support and advocacy."
WVSOM's CHERP training program is supported by the West Virginia Clinical Translational Science Institute, an academic home and catalyst for clinical and translational research that is funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
— Email: talvey@register-herald.com
