Community Health Workers: A Developing Workforce in South Dakota

Community Health Workers (CHWs) may be a new and developing profession in South Dakota but in many other states, CHWs have been successfully integrated into the patient care team for decades. CHWs play an integral role in expanding community access to health care, often working within interdisciplinary teams of health care professionals, including medical providers, nurses, and social workers.

The American Public Health Association defines a CHW as “a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of and/or has an unusually close understanding of the community served.” This trusted relationship allows them to connect patients to the care they need, assess barriers to health and mitigate some of the social determinants of health gaps.

In the past year, more than 115 CHWs have been hired and trained in South Dakota. As the CHW profession continues to grow across the state, clinics, hospitals, and nonprofit entities are hiring individuals and training them in these positions within their organizations to bridge the gap between communities and the health and social services systems.

Monument Health recently launched a CHW program, hiring and training three CHWs in Rapid City and one in Spearfish. The CHWs partner with Ambulatory Case Managers at the Rapid City primary care clinic and the Family Medicine Residency Clinic to identify patients who would benefit from the involvement of a CHW. Proven outcomes of CHW programs include fewer trips to the Emergency Room and more preventative and maintenance care for diseases like diabetes, hypertension and mental health. CHWs also address and overcome barriers related to patients’ Social Determinants of Health needs.

“What’s so exciting about this approach is that CHWs meet the patients where they are. It could be their home, the homeless shelter or wherever,” said Shelly Roy, Associate CNO of Nursing Professional Practice, who implemented the CHW program at Monument Health. “By going to them, we’re able to learn more about them and develop a relationship to help get what they need on their health care journey.”

South Dakota is fortunate to be just one of a handful of states that currently has fee-for-service reimbursement for CHW services through Medicaid. This reimbursement will help to sustain these developing positions across South Dakota.

In South Dakota, the Community Health Worker Collaborative of South Dakota (CHWSD) leads CHW awareness and workforce development through support from the South Dakota Department of Health. More information about CHWs, Medicaid reimbursement, and the developing workforce can be found by accessing www.chwsd.org.