The document discusses a Community Health Worker (CHW) mentorship program established by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. It found that CHW mentors are valuable for supporting newly integrated CHWs and their supervisors. CHW mentors provide expertise that enhances CHW and supervisor training. The mentorship aids CHW-led asthma home visiting pilots and clinical/community collaborations. The program improved CHW integration into care teams and clinical/community linkages, helping advance equity and racial justice in asthma care. Suggested improvements included mentors working more closely with pilot program sites to address challenges early.

1. Actions
Address with patients, providers, and community:
• Environmental asthma triggers in the home
• School, work, & community exposures
• Access to equitable, quality healthcare
• Asthma symptom management
Resulting in:
• Improved healthcare utilization
• Better quality of life for those with asthma
Perceived value was:
• CHWs and CHW Supervisors agreed mentorship is a
valuable component of CHW training and offer expertise
to support overall program launch.
Important elements and challenges were:
• Mentors serve as advocates for CHWs who are newly
being integrated into asthma clinical teams.
• The CHWs rely and call upon mentors who may have
more experience than the sites and there are aspects of
interventions that even their managers and program
officers don't understand.
Suggested improvements were:
• Mentors stressed it is vital to work closely with program
sites (not just with CHWs), helping them identify
potential issues early in order to work with sites and
agencies to encourage corrective actions where needed
and provide suggestions on effective approaches.
If we weren't here in the field dealing with this mess (a
good mess - some great things are happening) to
understand the frustrations and be an octopus to handle
different parts, none of it would be happening. The CHWs
would be changing - leaving each 6 months. We give them
support. - Mentor
Background Methods
Racial Disparities:
Average Annual Rate Hospitalizations by Race/Ethnicity
Hispanics and Black, non-Hispanics are 3.2 and 2.6 x
more likely to be hospitalized than Whites, respectively.
CHW Mentorship
Evaluation
The Asthma Prevention and Control Program of the Massachusetts
Department of Public Health sought to offer a CHW mentorship
program. Mentorship enhances existing offerings of CHW and CHW
supervisor trainings, support for CHW-led asthma home-visiting pilot
projects, as well as technical assistance and an Asthma Learning
Collaborative for clinical/community collaborations.
Experienced CHWs are vital mentors for new CHWs AND
their supervisors as well as agency program officers
Project Contact: Terry Greene tgreene@jsi.com
A Best Practice
for Asthma Control:
Community Health Worker HomeVisiting
Logic Model
MA CHW &
Supervisor Training
Program
Grants for
Community/Clinical
pilots
Develop Mentoring
Program
+
Asthma Learning
Collaborative
Improved CHW & Supervisor competencies
Enhanced CHW integration into care teams,
clinical/community linkages
Effective asthma education, asthma self-
management, and patient/community advocacy
Improved health and quality of life outcomes for
those with asthma
Q: What are the most important elements to incorporate
into a CHW Mentorship Program?
Q: What is valuable and what have been the challenges
in establishing CHW mentorship?
Q: What improvements could be made?
Evaluation Questions
Findings
Outcomes
Acknowledgements
 Launch of a CHW Mentorship
program with two mentors offering services
across the state.
 Retaining a CHW Mentor as a
faculty member for the MA Asthma
Learning Collaborative.
 Creation of a CHW Observational
Assessment – used informally/interactively.
• Clarification of CHW Mentor status
as a technical advisor to CHWs as well as their
supervisors and administrators launching asthma
home-visiting pilots.
• Improved CHW integration
into clinical/community teams.
• Advances in equity and racial justice
due to inclusion of a CHW Mentor in ongoing MA
asthma program planning.
Seeing clearly:Applying an equity lens in mentoring evaluation
Follow the leader: Using evaluation to guide innovations in mentoring - group poster session
JSI Research andTraining Institute Inc., Consultant Evaluator for the MA Department of Public Health
JSI would like to thank the Massachusetts
Department of Public Health, The Community
Health Education Center, Mentor Linda Barros, and
all who participated.
JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. www.jsi.com
Rates per 10,000 residents
CHILDREN ADULTS
CHILDREN
White, Non Hispanic
Hispanic
Black, Non Hispanic 432
287
182
253
252
114
Community health workers (CHWs) offer a shared
language and culture essential to supporting
individuals with asthma and their families.
Increasing since 1980, asthma:
Affects 25.7 million people in the U.S
1 in 9 MA residents have asthma (1
in 8 children) (2010)
For 3 out of 4adults and
2 out of 3children in MA,
their asthma is not well-
controlled.
Historic and Systemic Racism