Asian American Health Initiative May 2015 Newsletter

May 2015

Volume 5, Issue 6

Greetings!

AAHI is headed toward the end of its 2015 Fiscal Year. We are thankful for all the support we have received from our Steering Committee, Health Promoters, community partners, and volunteers for our new projects and at outreach!

Recap: E.C.H.O. Workshop

Intro to Health Data

Dr. Sunmin Lee providing background on her work

with health data

On May 13th, AAHI , in partnership with the African American Health Program and the Latino Health Initiative , hosted our ninth Empowering Community Health Organizations (E.C.H.O.) Workshop! This free workshop was the first in a three-part series on health data. It was led by Dr. Sunmin Lee, Associate Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Mayland School of Public Health. She covered the basics of health data and why it is important. Attendees had the opportunity to interact with the speaker and answer quiz questions using clickers.

Over 80 attendees, representing about 30 organizations from the community, made it to our workshop. Thank you to our wonderful speaker, Steering Committee, Health Promoters, volunteers, and staff for helping us make this a successful event. Check out AAHI's community blog for more photos from the night.

We look forward to seeing you for the second part of this health data series in fall 2015!

Launching Our Mental Health Projects!

On May 3rd, AAHI had a special opportunity to launch two unique mental health projects that we worked on in the past six months. Our projects, a multilingual photonovel and video, focus on mental health in the Asian American community. They are available in English, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, and Vietnamese in our Resource Library. Over 50 community leaders attended our launch! Special guests included a representative for Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Maryland State Senator Susan Lee, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett, Montgomery County Councilmember Roger Beliner, and Montgomery County Department of Health & Human Services Director Uma Ahluwalia. You can see more photos from the launch on our community blog.

We plan to make these resources available at health fairs and community clinics as well as on our social media and website. Moving forward, we hope to evaluate how helpful community members find the photonovels. If you are interested in tailoring the photonovels to your community, please visit our Resource Library for downloadable templates.

A huge thank you goes out to the AAHI Steering Committee, photonovel and video actors, video producer, and Patient Navigators who provided valuable assistance to our projects. We could not have accomplished what we did without their support!

Minutes away from officially launching our new mental health projects to the community!

Development of Maryland Community Health Workers

CHWs and Health Promoters discussing their thoughts on the proposed Workgroup recommendations

A community health worker (CHW) is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of and/or has an unusually close understanding of the community served. This relationship allows the CHW to serve as a link between health/social services and the community to improve service access and delivery in a culturally competent manner.

The use of CHWs will become more important as the health system continues to transform. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Maryland Insurance Administration established a Workgroup to study and make recommendations regarding workforce development for CHWs in Maryland. The Workgroup was specifically tasked to make recommendations regarding: 1) Training and credentialing required for CHWs to be certified as nonclinical health care providers; and 2) Reimbursement and payment policies for CHWs through the Maryland Medicaid Assistance Program and private insurers.

Last week, the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, through its Leadership Institute for Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities (LIEED) and Minority Health Initiatives and Program (MHIP), conducted a series of facilitated discussions with staff and groups of CHWs/Health Promoters to elicit comments about the Workgroup's recommendations. Overall, the LIEED/MHIP staff and CHWs who participated in the discussions are enthusiastic and hopeful about the new training and credentialing of CHWs in Maryland.