COLUMBIA, Md.—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.

“Community health workers are more critical than ever,” said Elizabeth Edsall Kromm, vice president of Population Health and Advancement at Howard County General Hospital. “They often come from similar backgrounds as the populations they serve, building trust with them, helping them take charge of their own health and serving as a bridge to health care providers.”

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 Howard County General Hospital or an approved site
• 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. A limited number of scholarships are available for the January cohort. For more information on scholarships, email [email protected].

Howard County General Hospital’s award-winning Community Care Team—consisting of community health nurses, health workers and social workers who support patients by collaborating with hospital departments, home care agencies, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups and government agencies—will lead the training.

To learn more or register, visit http://bit.ly/chw-training, call 410-720-8788 or email [email protected].

About Howard County General Hospital
Howard County General Hospital: A Member of Johns Hopkins Medicine is a not-for-profit health care provider with 225 licensed beds located in Columbia, Maryland. A comprehensive, acute-care medical center, Howard County General offers a full range of services, from neonatal care and oncology to outpatient treatment and critical care.

The hospital has a professional staff of more than 1,100 physicians and allied health professionals, representing nearly 100 specialties and subspecialties; a workforce of more than 1,850 individuals and over 330 volunteers.