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Howard County General Hospital receives accreditation to train community health workers

Howard County General Hospital receives accreditation to train community health workers

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Howard County General Hospital received accreditation from the Maryland Department of Health to provide training and certification for community health workers. Community health workers connect people in groups who have traditionally lacked adequate health care with health care and social services providers. Workers include health advocates, health coaches, lay health educators, public health workers, health representatives and outreach workers.

Offered three times a year, the community health worker training is a 14- to 15-week program that consists of 117 hours of online and virtual real-time sessions as well as in-person activities. This includes weekly modules with prerecorded learning which offers schedule flexibility, weekly discussion board posts online, 40-hour supervised practicum taken at General Hospital or an approved site and learning activities via live video or in person with social and physical distancing.

The training will cover advocacy and community capacity building, communication and cultural competency, ethics and confidentiality issues, local resources and system navigation, care coordination, teaching to promote health, outreach methods and strategies as well as public health concepts and health literacy.

The deadline for registration for the first cohort that begins Jan. 11, 2021, is Dec. 29. The program cost is $999.