IDPH provides $10 million to Illinois community health workers expanding mission

SPRINGFIELD (WGEM) – The Illinois Public Well being Affiliation and Illinois Main Well being Care Affiliation helped prepare 650 individuals to be well being care employees of their communities through the COVID-19 pandemic. These pandemic well being navigators served individuals in 92 counties, however some had been nervous their work would come to an finish with out funding.

The Illinois Division of Public Well being supplied the pandemic well being navigator program with $10 million Thursday to assist the neighborhood well being employees keep of their roles in 27 counties. This announcement got here the identical day this system was initially set to finish.

Dr. Tracey Smith, the neighborhood well being director for the Illinois Public Well being Affiliation, stated most of the neighborhood well being employees employed earlier within the pandemic have gone on to new jobs utilizing abilities they discovered by means of this system. Smith stated she is grateful Gov. JB Pritzker and IDPH labored with well being care leaders to search out sufficient funding to proceed this work.

“We’ve been lucky to be awarded a few grants that may enable us to proceed on with a lot of the work that the pandemic well being navigators did round social determinants of well being and addressing these well being disparities,” Smith stated. “Whether or not that’s meals, housing, whether or not that’s psychological well being assist, it’s throughout the gamut.”

Smith famous this funding will preserve individuals on the bottom who perceive these ideas and will help individuals obtain the assets they want. The well being care organizations plan to coach new neighborhood well being employees desirous about becoming a member of the hassle. Additionally they plan to coach all the employees in educating the general public about COVID-19 vaccinations and serving to individuals with persistent diseases like diabetes and hypertension.

The Well being Fairness Pandemic Well being Navigator Venture shall be accessible in Alexander, Boone, Cass, Clay, Douglas, Fayette, Franklin, Hardin, Henderson, Jackson, Jefferson, Kane, Kankakee, Lake, Lawrence, Macon, Marion, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Rock Island, St. Clair, Saline, Union, Vermillion, White and Winnebago counties. Smith stated there are nonetheless 450 neighborhood well being employees, however they hope to recruit extra neighbors to have a workers of 500 individuals.

Neighborhood organizations just like the NAACP and Illinois Migrant Council labored with the Illinois Main Well being Care Affiliation to broaden the well being care companies in underrepresented communities through the pandemic. Theresa Haley, state president of the NAACP, stated neighborhood well being employees have helped to deal with well being care deserts throughout the state. Haley stated the NAACP hosted a back-to-school bodily program with Black medical doctors and medical college students from the SIU Faculty of Drugs.

“One of many medical doctors stated to me that they had by no means seen so many youngsters on at some point present up,” Haley stated. “She stated this seems to be like one thing you’d see in a foreign country. We in all probability serviced 350 youngsters that specific day. This grant has allowed our communities to comprehend that there’s a disparity, and now America is watching.”

Haley careworn that well being fairness is certainly vital to enhance outcomes for individuals in Black and brown communities. Maggie Rivera, the president and CEO of the Illinois Migrant Council says neighborhood well being employees helped break by means of limitations.

“We’re eradicating beliefs which can be myths greater than they’re reality,” Rivera stated. “So we’re in a position to construct confidence throughout the medical area that our Hispanic communities or different Latin American international locations or different lately arrived refugees could have they usually develop hesitancies in not solely getting vaccinated but in addition going to a physician.”

Rivera famous that educating and connecting the general public to assets helps everybody. Dr. Smith famous that educating well being care suppliers in different programs concerning the cultural specifics will help them reply to questions in a method that develops extra belief with sufferers.

Greater than 137,000 Illinoisans have been helped by neighborhood well being employees since March 2021. The Illinois Public Well being Affiliation says most of these requests for help had been fulfilled inside 48 hours. Roughly 40% of the individuals employed to turn into public well being navigators had been unemployed. IPHA additionally stated practically 60% of the neighborhood well being employees establish as non-white.

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