Community Health Worker Training in Rural America

This session will focus on a partnership between Ohio University and The Erikson Institute of Chicago. Our Community Health Worker (CHW) curriculum has expanded capacity to teach health communication strategies to our community health workers through a partnership with the Erikson Institute of Chicago's Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) program. The session will describe how the partnership began and explain how expanding health communication skills among the workforce will increase the capacity for our CHWs to facilitate better health behaviors in Rural America.

Objectives:

1. Describe how the Community Health Worker curriculum incorporates the Facilitating FAN communication skills concept.
2. Apply Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) communication concepts to patient care.
3. Develop varied approaches to outreach.

Presenters: 

• Dawn Graham, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Instruction the Department of Social Medicine at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. She earned a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Purdue University in 2010 and Master of Arts in Applied Behavioral Science from Valparaiso University in 1999. Clinical and education experience includes work the University of Chicago Hospitals, Michigan City Area Schools, Purdue University, Porter Starke Community Mental Health and Logansport State Psychiatric Hospital. In addition, she has experience running a multi-million dollar federal grant to promote maternal/child health in Southeastern Ohio with partnerships in coordination with the Ohio Department of Health.
• Kerri Shaw, MSW: Since entering social work as a profession, Kerri Shaw has straddled both administration and clinical practice. She spent nearly ten years practicing school social work in rural Appalachian schools, working with individuals, groups, families, and communities to improve the quality of life, enhance health and wellness, develop programs, and cultivate strong support systems with children and families. She also developed and administers the Ohio University Community Health Worker Training Program, originally funded by MEDTAPP, which offers a pathway for participants to enter the healthcare workforce with an Ohio Board of Nursing certification. She is a graduate of Ohio University's social work program and has a BASW and MSW, with a focus in social work administration.