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The morning after a heavy snowstorm blanketed Utah’s Wasatch Front, Nisi La’a prepared a COVID-19 kit for a family living in Salt Lake City’s Rose Park neighborhood.
La’a, a 26-year-old community health worker for Pacific Island Knowledge 2 Action Resources, said the family called her organization for help after someone in their household began experiencing COVID-like symptoms. The package included a rapid COVID-19 test, a thermometer, an oximeter, KN95 masks, hand sanitizer and pamphlets to nearby health care centers.
La’a loaded the items in her car’s trunk next to a stack of water bottles. In less than ten minutes she was outside their home, had walked up the family’s snowy driveway and left the package by the front door. The community health worker had scheduled more deliveries for the day but was forced to cancel them because of the unexpected road conditions. She then headed back to her downtown Salt Lake City office to help another family with a rent relief application.
“Transportation is a barrier for a lot of families in the community,” La’a said, who has worked as a community health worker since 2020. “Sometimes they don’t have transportation to go to the testing site or they are too sick to even go to the testing site.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nisi La'a delivers a bag containing COVID-19 at-home tests, masks, a thermometer and pulse oximeter to a home Wednesday, Feb. 02, 2022. La'a is a community health care worker with Pacific Island Knowledge 2 Action Resources.
Throughout the pandemic, community health workers like La’a have worked on the frontlines to deliver critical health information and resources to diverse communities that are often not reached by traditional medical doctors or other health care services. Community health workers, who often belong to the communities they serve, act as a liaison between a specific group of people and medical institutions.
It is why a bill by Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, seeks to establish a state certification process for community health workers under the Utah Department of Health. Escamilla’s bill also would allow health institutions to unlock Medicaid dollars to fund the duties of community health workers. The bill unanimously passed the Utah House this week.
About 250 community health workers are expected to take advantage of the state certification, according to Escamilla. Under the bill, the health department would be required to notify the Health and Human Services Committee if there is a need for a Community Health Worker Certification Advisory Board. The certification would also require 90 hours of “competency-based education” and 300 hours of community involvement. Community health workers with 4,000 hours of experience would not be required to take the training in order to get certified.
Working on the ground
Whether it is addressing higher rates of diabetes in Latino neighborhoods or opioid addiction in rural Utah, community health workers are often viewed by their communities as health promoters and trusted messengers. Some doctors call them the future of healthcare.
“The needs are as diverse as those we serve,” said Oreta Tupola, a program coordinator for the Utah Public Health Association. “Part of our expertise is knowing the communities we serve.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nisi La'a works at the office of Pacific Island Knowledge 2 Action Resources, Wednesday, Feb. 02, 2022. La'a is a community health care worker and makes deliveries of test kits, masks another needs to underserved communities.
When COVID-19 cases among Latino Utahns living in the west side of Salt Lake City reached alarming numbers during the pandemic, Escamilla said community health workers were on the ground to deliver vaccines and accurate, culturally competent information to Hispanic communities.
“What we also learned is that our community health workers were not being necessarily treated as essential workers, even though they were on the frontlines helping in addressing this issue,” Escamilla said.
Heather Borski, deputy director of the Utah Department of Health, spoke in support of the bill during a committee hearing, saying the funding source for community health workers has been “piecemealed” through grants from other medical institutions.
The proposed legislation would open “the door for Medicaid reimbursement and building a sustainable model of funding for this important provider in the health care system,” she said.
