Community Health Work

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Facilitator:
Time: 35 mins; 1050-1125
Actual time:
Learning Objectives:
Materials:

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Grace's Matrix: Before, During, and After Harm

Facilitator

Places student responses to Adriana's dilemma into Grace's Matrix:

Harm	to Person	to Group
Before or invisible	?	?
During	?	?
After	?	?

Definition

Facilitator:

¹ Community health workers (CHW) are members of a community who are chosen bycommunity members or organizations to provide basic health and medical care to their community.

World Health Organization

² Community health workers should be members of the communities where they work, should be selected by the communities, should be answerable to the communities for their activities, should be supported by the health system but not necessarily a part of its organization, and have shorter training than professional workers.

U. S. Department of Health and Human Services

³ CHWs offer interpretation and translation services, provide culturally appropriate health education and information, assist people in receiving the care they need, give informal counseling and guidance on health behaviors, advocate for individual and community health needs, and provide some direct services such as first aid and blood pressure screening.

Where There Is No Doctor

⁴ A village health worker is anyone who takes part in making his or her village a healthier place to live. This means almost everyone can and should be a health worker.

Facilitator says

Community health lies on a powerful intersection between healthcare and social change. Many health structures we take for granted today are the result of radicals getting involved in community health:

• Rat abatement and lead testing programs, and community-based drug treatment centers were pioneered by Black Panthers and Young Lords.

• Domestic violence programs, breastfeeding education, woman-centered childbirth support, legal abortions, and most women's health care options were developed by radical feminist groups and their offshoots.

• Community-based mental health care replaced the asylum system thanks to work by the Mental Patients' Liberation Front.

Street medics are community health workers

Facilitator says

Street medics have a special relationship of trust with protester communities. This trust allows us to:⁵

• Build relationships -- If we know who has chronic health conditions, we can help them manage their conditions and avoid crises.⁶

• Encourage people to take better care of themselves -- Street medics help protesters get enough sleep, stay hydrated, take breaks as needed, change their socks daily, etc.

• Find trends early -- One morning, six people ask if we have anything for their diarrhea. What can we do?

• Identify vectors -- Streetmedics can trace health problems back to their common root. Where has everyone with this strange rash on their skin been sleeping?

• Ask good questions -- Every patient contact is a potential opportunity to have a conversation about the patient's lifestyle, sleeping arrangements, family history, stress, etc. We can empower people to make informed decisions about their own health.

We keep our bond of trust by being available, approachable, nice, nonjudgmental, and radical. We give out freebies like candied ginger, hand warmers, ponchos, herbal tea, condoms, and cough drops. Freebies give people a reason to interact with us and build trust. We meet people where they're at, with respect and understanding.

Three Community Health Skills

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Options counselling

Teach via Sexual Assault response. Repeat after me: "I believe you, it's not your fault, you have options."⁸

De-escalation

Teach redirection by showing, and metaphor of person who wants something and you are in the way.

Active Bystander

Point out difference between upset and targeting, bullying, entrapping, etc. Lay out basic principles of why people don't intervene, and how to change that. Mention SA in US military as example of success.