0

Community Health Worker workforce development

The Community Health Worker Workforce Development Initiative (formerly the Health Navigator Workforce Development Initiative) aims to define competencies and standardize training for unlicensed Community Health Workers (CHW), introduce voluntary credentialing and a CHW Registry, and engage partners to promote sustainability of the CHW workforce in Colorado

Please Note: We're adopting Community Health Workers as an umbrella term for the workforce in Colorado.

In 2023, CDPHE adopted the umbrella term “Community Health Worker” for the workforce in Colorado. CDPHE, together with a group of stakeholders, revised the Health Navigator core competencies to a new set of 8 (eight) Community Health Worker core competencies. Those working in these roles may also be known as promotores de salud/promatora, patient navigators, health navigators, or resource navigators, among others.

This change in terminology will not have any immediate impacts, but you will begin to see changes to CDPHE web pages, newsletters, and other collateral as we transition to using community health workers as an umbrella term.

 

EffortCurrent stateTransition (June 2024-July 2025)Future State (July 2025-onward)
CHW approved training
  • Organizations offer Health Navigation (HN) Training Programs.
  • Current organizations offering HN Training Programs transition curriculum to meet Community Health Worker (CHW) Standards.
  • Organizations offer Health Navigation (HN) Training Programs.
  • Current organizations offering HN Training Programs transition curriculum to meet Community Health Worker (CHW) Standards.
     
  • CHW Training Programs prepare students for the new certification and assessment process starting in July 2025 or sooner.
CHW assessment
  • Students who complete HN Training Programs take HN assessment.
  • HN assessment will be made available for 15 offerings between now and June 2025.
     
  • CAPE is transitioning to a written assessment to assess the CHW Standards and validating assessment by June/July 2025.
  • If a student is going through a new approved CHW Training Program, they can either take the current HN assessment through June 2025 or wait for the new CHW assessment in June/July 2025.
     
  • After June/July 2025, the new CHW assessment will be available to those who have completed an approved CHW Training Program OR meet the alternative pathway requirements to take the assessment.
  • Assessment will be available in Spanish and compatible with screen readers.
  • Applicants will create a Certemy account in order to take the assessment. In the account, they will submit their training or alternative pathway requirements prior to taking the assessment. CDPHE will approve.
     
CHW registry
  • Students who pass the HN assessment are added to the CDPHE Registry.
  • Those currently on the Registry 
    will remain on the Registry as a CHW. Anyone who passed the current HN assessment since January 2024 will not be placed on the registry until the new platform is up and running (expected January 2025).
  • All current individuals on the Registry will need to create a Certemy account and update their information.
  • After January 2025, those passing the new CHW assessment will see this information reflected on their Certemy account. Once CDPHE verifies, that individual will be placed on the new Registry.
  • Individuals will have an account to download their CHW certificate and manage their information, name changes, etc.
  • No continued education or re-certification requirements. As of now, for Medicaid, individuals will need to re-enroll every 5 years in which their original CHW credential certificate will be accepted.

 

What does this mean to me?

If you are listed in the Colorado Health Navigator Registry, you will remain listed as the registry is updated to become a Community Health Worker registry. You may see some changes to the language used in the registry as we move to the umbrella term community health worker. The registry may also grow larger as more CHWs are added.

A community health worker (also known as a patient navigator or resource navigator) is a member of the health care team who helps individuals overcome barriers to quality care. They address barriers including access to health care, insurance or lack thereof, poor health literacy, transportation, child care and more.

Community health workers usually are trusted members of the community they serve and have an unusually close understanding of the community served, often due to shared lived experiences.

Community health workers build effective working relationships with their patients, helping to support, educate and assist patients to navigate the complex healthcare system. To navigate this system, community health workers need to work effectively with both patients and multidisciplinary care providers and community partners. They need to be able to identify their patient’s physical, emotional, and cultural needs and help them access appropriate resources to meet these needs.

Community health workers have a good understanding of the health resources available in their communities in order to refer their patients to the best resources available to them.

Research indicates that patient navigation provided by unlicensed community health workers reduces health disparities, improves patient engagement with their health, enables patients to get the care they need, improves health outcomes and reduces health care costs.
 

Community health workers are employed by health care delivery systems including primary care, specialty care, and managed care as well as local public health agencies. Typically they are HIPAA-covered entities or maybe HIPAA hybrid agencies where only some programs in the system are HIPAA-covered (e.g., some local public health agencies may be HIPAA hybrids). 

Examples of agencies that are part of the healthcare system include:

  • Individual health clinic (includes provider-owned clinic).
  • Community-based organizations.
  • Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC).
    Community health center.
  • Hospital and hospital networks.
  • Integrated health systems - health systems focus on the continuum of care, from wellness and preventive services to urgent care, inpatient care, outpatient care, hospice, health plan offerings, and more.
  • School-based clinic.
  • Safety net clinic or hospital.
  • Rural health center.
  • Local public health agency.
  • Accountable Care Collaborative (ACC) and Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) – in Colorado, Regional Accountable Entities (RAEs).