COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER

Position Summary

The Community Health Worker (CHW) serves as a vital link between the health center and the community, working to improve health outcomes for patients by providing culturally appropriate health education, informal counseling, social support, and advocacy. The CHW helps patients navigate the healthcare system and connect with essential community resources.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform screenings for social determinants of health (SDOH) and assess needs related to housing, food access, transportation, financial assistance, behavioral health, and other social supports.
• Connect patients to appropriate community resources, including medical, behavioral health, housing, food assistance, transportation, entitlements, and other social services identified in the care plan.
• Career with internal and external service providers to ensure seamless, goal-directed, collaborative care and smooth care transitions.
• Provide follow-up services and monitor patients' progress toward self-management goals established with clinical providers.
• Provide one-on-one health education sessions on topics such as chronic disease management (e.g., diabetes, hypertension), preventive care, and wellness (e.g., nutrition, physical activity).
• Work as part of a multidisciplinary team; attend and participate in meetings to provide input and feedback related to SDOH needs, barriers, psychosocial considerations, and patient progress.
• Maintain effective communication with patients, primary care providers, behavioral health providers, substance use treatment providers, care managers, family (with consent), and other agency staff regarding patient needs and progress.
• Promote the utilization of preventive and primary care services offered by the health center.
• Build and maintain relationships with community organizations and resources.
• Advocate on behalf of patients with health and social service systems to overcome barriers to care.
• Accurately document all patient encounters, referrals, and follow-up activities in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) or other required databases, adhering to HIPAA guidelines.
• Collect required data for program evaluation and quality improvement efforts.

Qualifications

• High School diploma/GED required
• Bachelor’s Degree preferred in Public Health, Health Education, Psychology, or Social Work
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written) required
• Ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team
• CHW certification required
• 2-4 years of related human services experience required in providing direct services to the underserved community of services essential to successfully living in the community
• Working knowledge of computer software and electronic health record systems
• Demonstrated competency in written, verbal and computational skills to present and document records in accordance with program standards
• Knowledge of Medicaid, Social Security and other entitlements preferred
• Bilingual required, Spanish/Creole

Benefits

The Harmony Healthcare Long Island offers a stable employment opportunity with a growing company, and competitive base compensation along with health and dental insurance, paid time off, 401-K with company match, paid holidays, employee discounts and much more.