Address
Form of workCommunity Health Worker
Job Type: Full-time: This is a grant funded position through June 2025. Legislature has recently passed to sustain and scale the role thereafter.
Schedule: Hybrid position upon completion of training, with expectation to work in our clinics 3 times a week; 2 days remote/outreach throughout Pierce County. No weekends and closed for major holidays.
Pay: $30.04 per hour
Our Community Health Workers (CHWs) promote coordination of care and systems navigation support for behavioral health needs and help families to address a range of stressors through the provision of individualized, relational, and strengths-based support to children, youth, and families. Our goal for this position is to support children and youth (ages 0-18) through short-term interventions within the scope of practice through outreach and resources addressing social determinants of health. CHWs are dedicated individuals who have a close understanding of the diversity in the community they serve and build individual and community capacity.
Community Health Worker Roles: ERH CHW and K12 CHW
Early Relational Health Community Health Worker (ERH CHW) Role:
- Care coordination for children (0-5 years old) and their caregivers.
- Act as liaison between vulnerable populations and the health care system/needed services while offering support and informal counseling to ensure responsive, tailored, and accessible care.
- Offer care system navigation.
- Must be familiar with the perinatal and early childhood services and systems to enhance early relational health, services, and system landscape, and
- interdisciplinary support for young children and their families.
- Goals are to promote healthy development, empower caregivers/parents with a focus on parent and family strengths, and decrease barriers to accessing desired resources and services for health-related social needs.
K12/School-Age Mental Health Community Health Worker (K12 CHW) Role:
- Care coordination to children/youth (5 -18 years old) and their caregivers.
- Act as a bridge between vulnerable populations within the complex health care system and needed services while offering support and informal counseling to ensure responsive and accessible care.
- Offer comprehensive and coordinated care.
- Must be familiar with the mental and behavioral health services and systems for school-age children and youth to promote mental wellness, decrease stigma related to mental/behavioral health needs, offer systems navigation and interdisciplinary support for children, youth and their families.
- Goals are to promote healthy development, empower children, youth and their caregivers/parents around advocating for mental/behavioral health needs, and decrease barriers to accessing resources and services for health-related social needs and behavioral health services.
Functions & Responsibilities (Including but not limited to):
Outreach
- Work closely with clinic staff to identify children/youth and their families to refer to CHW services, with prioritization for special populations such as those who have experienced life stressors, children/youth with special needs, those who have a preferred language other than English, BIPOC who experience greater barriers, etc.
- Provide tailored outreach utilizing interpersonal and relational skills to children/youth and their families on clinic panel lists who have had a gap in care or identified that could benefit from additional support.
- Bridge the gap between children/youth and families and the health care system through application assistance, accessing behavioral health and related services, and support completing intake activities for services.
- Provide support and address barriers in obtaining healthcare coverage for uninsured individuals.
- Collaborate with all clinic staff members to provide comprehensive services that are individualized to best serve each client/family to ensure adherence to treatment and health promotion recommendations.
- Participate in community outreach to a wide range of sectors and meet with diverse provider pool to build relationships and streamline referrals for families.
Informal Counseling
- Support individualized goal setting with children/youth and their families to support health goals and address identified needs.
- Describe to children/youth and families the purpose of health care services/recommendations and provide tailored education regarding effective use of the local healthcare and social services systems.
- Provide culturally appropriate health education and wellness coaching on topics related to prevention, healthy living, and relational health through emphasis on family and caregiving strengths and utilize tools to assist with assessing needs and progress.
- Meet with parents/caregivers of children/youth to provide education and promote strong caregiver-child relationship using a strengths and evidence-based approach.
- Provide developmentally appropriate education on identified health needs and concerns to support skill development and self-management techniques.
- Develop supportive, trusting relationships as means for increasing engagement in primary care and other identified services. Create the opportunity for ongoing contact and relationship building with families via phone/text message check-ins between scheduled visits.
- Address barriers faced/voiced in terms of access to any additional referrals or services (e.g., transportation, language).
Health-related social needs
- Conduct screenings to assess client/family needs to guide referrals and services, engaging in shared decision making with clients/caregivers.
- Identify individualized and comprehensive service needs through in-depth client/family interviews utilizing a social needs assessment.
- Utilize knowledge of local community resources and services offered to provide tailored recommendations and referrals (considering cultural and linguistic needs, family geographic location, caregiver comfort and readiness) for client.
- Create, update, and maintain each clients’ service/care plan, and other relevant documentation in accordance with clinic guidelines and policies.
- Meet with clients/families as needed to monitor implementation of the client service/care plan, to provide additional support/advocacy, and to partner to resolve barriers that are interfering with active participation in the plan.
- Establish and maintain relationships with other service providers/agencies. Keep updated on what services are available in the community to assist clients with a wide range of health-related social needs.
- Actively participate in case conferences and/or interdisciplinary team case reviews to collaborate on client/family progress, to co-learn with clinic team members, and educate clinic team about Community Health needs and share best practices.
Skills and background needed:
- Strong written and oral communication skills that align with target population/community.
- Knowledge or experience in navigating complex systems of care, inside and outside the realm of health care.
- Interest and ability to work with diverse communities successfully, including self-awareness, understanding of systems oppression, and willingness to contribute to undoing institutionalized racism.
- Passionate about working in an organization that values and promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism.
- Awareness of local resources, navigating local resources to address stressors or social determinants of health.
- Ability to demonstrate a working knowledge in computer use, electronic health record experience a plus.
- Commitment to improving experience of care for children and their caregivers, particularly those underserved by our current systems.
- Ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality.
Education/certification requirements:
- Education: High School Diploma or GED
- Experience navigating social service organizations, lived, related, or professional experience working with targeted population.
- Licensure: Must have a valid DL and current auto insurance
- Bilingual preferred
Benefits:
- Health and Vision Insurance covered at 100% for the employee.
- Dental Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Voluntary Insurance Plans
- 401k plan
- Profit Sharing
- 8 Paid Holidays per year
- 3 weeks PTO for first year of employment. PTO available for use after 90 days of employment.
- Milage and toll reimbursement
- EAP Services
**Our CHW’s will receive a cellphone, phone plan, laptop, and docking station to support their daily functions.
Candidate required to pass background check and drug screen. Pediatrics Northwest is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Pediatrics Northwest is adhering to Washington State Laws regarding Health Care Professionals and the COVID-19 vaccine and employees must be vaccinated.
Please apply at the link below!
Pediatrics Northwest (recruitingbypaycor.com)
