Using community health workers and volunteers to reach complex needs populations

To effectively reach individuals with complex medical and social needs, health care delivery systems are increasingly incorporating alternative roles into care teams, including community health workers, volunteers, neighborhood navigators, community paramedics, or pharmacists. This three-part webinar series from the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) is exploring emerging innovations in the complex care workforce. This first webinar highlighted strategies for integrating community health workers and volunteers into care teams that serve high-need, high-cost individuals in both rural and urban environments.

• Mountain-Pacific Quality Health discussed its innovative ReSource Teams serving rural Montana communities as well as its robust volunteer network that helps connect beneficiaries with complex needs to health and social services.
• Johns Hopkins Community Health Partnership provided an urban perspective, describing its successful approach to connecting East Baltimore residents to health and social services through community-based partnerships, neighborhood navigators, and community health workers.

The webinar series is a product of the Complex Care Innovation Lab and Transforming Complex Care, two national initiatives focused on advancing and spreading innovations in complex care. Future webinars will focus on integrating community paramedicine and community pharmacy resources into complex care.