Here you will find several firsthand accounts from CHWs of their memorable experiences attending APHA’s Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
A Report on the 137th APHA Annual Meeting, by Javad Rajai Dari, Russian and Arabic Medical Interpreter and Community Health Worker
First off, I just wanted to thank the Sewell Foundation for this great chance in attending the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. My experience at the APHA Annual Meeting was really interesting. There were many new useful ideas being suggested at different sessions. As we all know, CHWs have an active role in social change towards a healthy and dignified life. CHWs are in charge of raising awareness and identifying interests and needs in order to help the people in society. CHWs provide feedback and help to access vital and effective health care services. One of the most creative improvements I learned about was developing an online database for CHW interactions, data collection, case management and community activities to CHW interventions.
In another presentation, I found several points interesting and effective in improving social and health services. In order to improve public health and success, we need to better future trainings, add more activities, create trusted relationships with clients, and take down social cultural barriers between communities and health or social service systems. To have a greater sense of a problem, gathering information to help health providers would clearly promote guaranteed success. The social health services should build individual and community bonds through a range of activities such as outreach activities, home visits and social counseling. To solve social problems, CHWs should satisfy better qualities in training, advocacy, teaching, clinical advice, disease training, health promotions and community relations.
Many training resources are available in order to create improvements. Health education and advocacy to individuals and communities play a great role in public health and awareness in the society. Data collection is great positive feedback, providing the health and social organizations and communities with lots of information and knowledge. Patient education is the best way to raise awareness and spread knowledge by community organizations at community events.
CHWs advise the community through leadership, public resources, outreach, reform, and by providing social services. Another way for CHWs to succeed is to be committed at all times to train, educate, and manage support. CHWs must make bonds with the community organizations like churches.
Mamnunul Haq, Community Health Worker, DREAM Project, NYU School of Medicine
My first time at the APHA Annual Meeting was a memorable one. It was exciting and interesting to get in touch with so many people, especially at such a large conference. This conference gave me an opportunity to get in contact with APHA, community health workers and the Community Health Workers SPIG Council. It's remarkable and laudatory that the CHW SPIG application for "section" status has been reviewed by APHA and we are now officially a CHW Section.
I was able to participate in a number of workshops. The first two were the Meeting and Member Orientation along with the CHW Education y Capacitacion Committee. At the Membership Orientation I was informed about the offered workshops and who was holding them.
I am a participating member of the NYC CHW Network. At the CHW Education y Capacitacion meeting we were invited to participate in finalizing the vision and mission statements, as well as to review the historical meeting minute and comment and decide upon the next committee conference call. We were also able to discuss and decide about policy issues. We spoke about the emerging issues in the training of CHWs. Similarly, we were able to discuss the collaboration of the policies with the CHW Section Policy Committee. Some issues of concern were CHW training at academic institutions vs. at CBOs, CHW certification, employment sector development and more. We were also able to establish “E y C” work groups. The evening of Nov. 9 we were invited to attend a social/reception hour for the CHWs. At the reception we were able to celebrate our acceptance as a Section. It gave us an opportunity to meet other CHWs aspiring to make a difference. We were also able to meet many of the governing members. Tuesday, Nov. 10 I was able to attend the general CHW business meeting. Thank you for the opportunity to attend this Annual Meeting.
Centro Comunitario Juan Diego Promotoras de Salud, Stephanie Puente and Nora Coronado
Reflection on Participation at the APHA Annual Meeting
It was with great honor that both Nora Coronado and I, Stephanie Puente, attended the APHA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. We are ever so grateful to Dr. Molly Martin and members of the Community Health Worker Section who extended us an invitation to not only attend but assist in Dr. Martin’s presentation. Through our participation in not only the workshops sponsored by the Community Health Workers Section as well as those sponsored by the other sections, both Nora and I were able to meet with community health workers and public health professionals from all over the country, gain knowledge and tools that will improve CCJD’s outreach and health education efforts, and engage in dialogue with our peers over challenges we all share such as the pending debate over certification of community health workers.
Nora and I felt very fortunate to have been selected to attend the APHA Annual Meeting because we realize that it is not economically feasible for many organizations to register their community health workers to the attend the conference. Therefore, Nora and I made an effort to attend as many workshop sessions sponsored by not only the Community Health Workers Section but also by other sections and SPIGs in order to acquire new tools and resources that we can share with our fellow promotoras de salud not only at Centro Comunitario Juan Diego but also throughout the Chicago metropolitan region and Northwest Indiana. It was exciting to see what programs and concepts are successful at other community centers, clinics and communities. We found it valuable to learn about new ideas that could possibly work and thus, improve our programming at Centro Comunitario Juan Diego.
The most valuable resource for us at the APHA Annual Meeting was the opportunity to meet and associate with not only community health workers from Illinois but also from all over the country. The CHW Section sponsored seminars that served as the perfect vehicle for all us community health workers to be sincere with each other and share our concerns, struggles, and successes. It was comforting for Nora and me to know that the promotoras at CCJD are not the only ones who face challenges in our work and the recognition of our work. More than just a bonding experience, these seminars allowed us CHWs to work together to find possible unique solutions to our problems such as that of certification of community health workers or evaluation methods. It would be great if these seminars were offered more frequently and outside of the conference in other cities because these resources are valuable to all community health workers. These seminars help us learn and grow as community health workers because we learned new practices and ideas from our peers. To be an effective community health worker we must keep up with the trends in not only public health but also the increasing use of technology in our health education and outreach efforts.
The new skills, knowledge, resources, and tools Nora and I acquired at the APHA Annual Meeting will aid Centro Comunitario Juan Diego in organizing and successfully holding its first annual promotoras de salud conference in March 2010 at the University of Illinois-Chicago Public School of Health.