Amerigroup Partnership CHW Training

Amerigroup Iowa Offers Community Health Worker Training to Enhance Workforce

Amerigroup Iowa CHW Training Orientation Video | Amerigroup Iowa CHW Training Application

Announcing 2022 Amerigroup-sponsored Cohort: Begins January 19, 2022

Direct questions to Deb Kazmerzak, deb.kazmerzak@iowaccc.com, 515-554-3788

CHW Training Opportunity
The Iowa Chronic Care Consortium (ICCC) and Amerigroup Iowa, a leading managed care provider of health benefits for Iowa residents, is providing Community Health Worker (CHW) Professional Skills training course enrollment to 100 community health and frontline workers at community and faith-based organizations as well as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to enhance the workforce in Iowa.

ICCC has long recognized the value of utilizing CHWs and the need to support this workforce in Iowa as it created the Professional Skills training in 2018. Now in its third year, ICCC, with support from Amerigroup, will build the capacity for communities to assist and support Medicaid beneficiaries in addressing the social drivers of health.
Income loss, housing, food insecurity and access to healthcare have penetrated the lives of many for the first time during the pandemic. The healthcare community knows with certainty these social factors keep individuals and families from reaching and sustaining health. Increasingly across the U.S., CHWs are being utilized to engage those needing assistance and connecting them to healthcare and other services and supports they need as a way of reducing the impacts of these barriers.

Eligibility and Program
Eligible employees of local social service agencies, faith-based organizations, FQHCs and other qualified agencies that provide non-Medicaid wrap-around services are invited to apply. Amerigroup will approve applications for up to 100 community health and frontline workers at no cost to participants.

The 23-week online training, along with reading and practical exercises, will earn successful participants a non-credit CHW Professional Skills certificate from the Des Moines Area Community College, Kirkwood Community College, or other community colleges across Iowa.

This CHW Professional Skills Training offered by the Iowa Chronic Care Consortium is a companion to its Department of Labor-approved CHW Registered Apprenticeship. The training is contemporary, comprehensive, and aimed at developing skills and talents which will prepare and enhance the effectiveness of CHWs who are new to their roles, as well as more experienced CHWs. Active learning components focus on practical aspects and skills essential to effective CHW performance. Training topics include:

  • Promoting health equity and equality
  • Practicing cultural humility
  • Conducting client interviews
  • Coaching and client-centered behavior change
  • Care management
  • Home visits – approach, safety, security
  • Stress management and self-care
  • Conflict resolution
  • Chronic conditions management
  • Healthy eating and active living
  • Understanding trauma
  • Health services outreach
  • Professional skills

The January cohort of the CHW Professional Skills Training for participants will begin January 19th, 2022. Applications are open until January 5, 2022.

To access an Amerigroup Iowa CHW Training Orientation Video that outlines additional information about training content and process, the application, and eligibility click here. For access to the PDF shown in the video, click here. For access to the Amerigroup Iowa CHW Training Application click here.

For more information contact Deb Kazmerzak, deb.kazmerzak@iowaccc.com | 515-554-3788 or Dr. William Appelgate, william.appelgate@iowaccc.com | 515-988-6475.