Quisha Umemba of UmembaHealth and Diversity in Diabetes. Quisha is a Registered Nurse with a background in public health. She is a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist, Certified Lifestyle Coach and Certified Community Health Worker instructor. She is the CEO of Umemba Health, LLC, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Diversity in Diabetes and Co-Creator of the People of Color Living with Diabetes Summit.
Quisha references the following resources:
- CDC on community health workers
- Health Leads on burnout
- National Association of Community Health Workers
Highlights include:
3:25 – QU: “I like to think of Community Health Workers as the social determinant of health experts, and it’s especially true when they’re engaging, implementing interventions in minority or underserved communities. They really do help improve health access and they reduce healthcare disparities and enhance health equity.”
11:30 – QU: “The primary issue that I see with organizations that I consult with is really being able to designate those defined roles and responsibilities and utilize the Community Health Workers in the way that they are trained. Utilize them for resource navigation, utilize them for care management, utilize them for that diabetes education program or maybe your blood pressure self-monitoring program.”
12:40 – QU: “Your Community Health Worker is an expert at what they’re trained in … and that’s how clinics and healthcare systems have to understand and utilize them, as experts at addressing the social determinants of health. At screening for those social determinants, at finding and connecting patients to those community resources. And then following up to ensure that yes, they did go to the food bank, or yes, they did sign up for Medicare or, yes, they did follow up with the specialist that they referred to. And that’s going to take off so much stress and so much time from the nurses and doctors, and really give them more time to take care of other patients and sicker patients.”
29:39 – QU: “I always like to say you can’t pour from an empty cup. And so organizations that want to keep their Community Health Workers happy should consider things like career pathways.”
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