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Reducing Diabetes Disparities Through the Implementation of a Community Health Worker–Led Diabetes Self-Management Education Program

Year:
2012
State:
TX
Website Link:
Publicly Available:
Yes
Billing and Reimbursement:
Certification:
Competencies
Evidence Generation:
Documentation of how CHWs can work within care teams, Evidence-based interventions
Policy:
Sustainable Financing:​
Workforce Development:
CHW training programs (not cert.)

Summary

Disparities in prevalence of type 2 diabetes and complications in underserved populations have been linked to poor quality of care including lack of access to diabetes management programs. Interventions utilizing community health workers (CHWs) to assist with diabetes management have demonstrated improvements in patient outcomes. Use of CHWs may be an effective model for providing care coordination and reducing disparities, but there is limited knowledge on how to implement this model on a large scale. This article describes how an integrated health care system implemented a CHW-led diabetes self-management education program targeting Hispanic patients and reports lessons learned from the first 18 months of operation.