Montefiore Awarded $2 Million New York State Department of Health Grant to Advance the Education and Training of Community Health Workers
Summary
New Funding Enables the Community Health Worker Institute at Montefiore to Optimize the Skillsets of CHWs & Create Clearer Career Pathways for Local ExpertsBRONX, N.Y. January 9, 2024. We are grateful for this new funding which will help ensure we are enhancing experiences for our CHWs, but also will provide a roadmap for how to share and replicate CHW best practices elsewhere.Through the new funding, CHWs will be compensated as they participate in an enhanced intensive four-week training spanning data management to social service workshops that lay the foundation for how to navigate systems and help families with their most pressing needs like housing security and quality, food security, transportation, access to healthcare, child/adult care and legal services. To date, more than 215,000 patients have been screened for SDOH and 15-20% were identified as having at least one social need.By having an academic medical center, which combines education, research and clinical care in the Bronx, one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse counties, Montefiore is uniquely positioned to create a training program that can serve as a model for how to educate and train this new workforce, particularly in vulnerable communities.Our CHWs are the Bronx, said Scott Wetzler, PhD, vice president, Behavioral Health Management, Montefiore, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. It is a recognized leader in providing exceptional quality and personalized, accountable care to approximately three million people in communities across the Bronx, Westchester, and the Hudson Valley. The advanced clinical and translational research at its medical school, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, directly informs patient care and improves outcomes.