Community Health Worker

The One Brooklyn Health (OBH) system was established to preserve and enhance health care services in the communities of Central Brooklyn through the merger of three hospitals and their affiliated facilities – Brookdale Hospital Medical Center (BHMC), Interfaith Medical Center (IMC), Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center (KJMC). All three hospitals have historic ties in the communities they serve and are now working together to build a system that will enable OBH to provide the highest quality of healthcare services and improve health overall for Central Brooklyn. 

The Maternal Child Health Initiative is a grant funded program that was established to enhance maternity and pediatric care for OBH patients by integrating a suite of evidence-based models (Centering Pregnancy, Healthy Families and HealthySteps) to reduce racial disparities in maternal and child outcomes.

Grant Funded, non-union Position

The MCHI Community Health Worker overall role and responsibilities are to ensure that every patient is offered screening for social health related needs and is effectively connected to appropriate health and wellness resources, public benefit programs, and other needed social services/community resources in a timely and culturally appropriate manner, with the goal of addressing social determinants that may lead to poor maternal and health outcomes.

• Empower and Advocate: Build trusting relationships with, and between patients, community members and providers to support patients’ maternal/child health and development needs. Conduct patient interviews to screen and assess social and service-related needs and partner with them to create individualized, patient-centered, goal-directed care plans. Act as a patient advocate and liaison between the patient, hospital system, community resources and community service agencies.
• Community Mapping & Engagement: Continuously expand knowledge of community resources, services, and programs provided in the geographic location of assigned patient populations. Identify gaps in services and barriers to care. Participate in community initiatives to facilitate collaboration and networking, and advance health equity to reduce maternal child health disparities.  Actively engage with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including community and faith-based organizations, hospital leadership, and city and state officials, to build partnerships that support the health and well-being of our community.
• Resource Connection: Introduce patients to our evidence based maternal and child health programs (i.e. Centering Pregnancy, Healthy Families, Healthy Steps), and our Baby Friendly philosophies and practices. Outreach to CBOs to help patients access resources to address barriers to care, and social-emotional or development needs (for example, helping patients fill out applications or escorting them to community organizations to obtain needed services, or connecting to EIP).
• Collaborative Care: Facilitate communication between patients, community partners and providers. Provide culturally appropriate health information and translation. Participate in collaborative team, staff and patient care planning meetings. Assist patients with healthcare navigation, including coordination of patient appointments, transportation, social services, community support, access to child development programs, and referrals. Travel between office locations and to various community settings as required.
• Reporting and Accountability: Manage database and data collection in electronic health record (EPIC) and Excel spreadsheets or other data systems.
• Staff Development: Participate in ongoing education and specialized training to learn and maintain skills and knowledge base. Increase sensitivity to cultural, historical and gender issues, and application diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and justice principles.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Education:

• High School diploma, or associate’s degree, with relevant work of lived experience, or Community Health Worker training certificate.
• Associates degree in Community Health, Social Work, Human Services, Public Health, or any closely related field preferred.

Experience:

• Minimum 1-year previous experience (including lived experience) in the healthcare, community-based, or social work environment.
• Familiarity with social service programs and Brooklyn community-based organizations.
• Experience providing direct support services to patients, experience with behavioral health needs a plus
• Experience in the use of email, Internet usage and technology programs (Excel, Word, Outlook, EHRs, etc.)

Knowledge and Skills:

• Bilingual English/Spanish or Haitian Creole a plus.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to working with underserved populations in a community setting.
• Displays high standards of ethical conduct and a commitment to equity.
• Ability to work with people of differing cultural. racial, sexual or ethnic identities.
• Displays sensitivity to the service population’s cultural and socioeconomic characteristics.
• Ability to take initiative and willingness to learn.
• Ability to work well both in teams and independently.
• Commitment to a family-centered, strengths-based, trauma informed approach to care.
• Strong motivational interviewing skills.
• Ability to collect and enter data for program management, evaluation and reporting purposes.
• Must be empathic, supportive, and patient.

Licenses, Certifications:

• Community Health Worker Certificate, or associate’s degree highly preferred.

Physical Requirements:

• Position requires prolonged periods of sitting, standing, reaching, and walking throughout the working day.
• Position will be required to stoop, bend, lift, and carry items weighing up to 25 pounds.

The salary range and/or hourly rate listed is a good faith determination of potential base compensation that may be offered to a successful applicant for this position at the time of this job advertisement and can be modified in the future. When determining a team member’s base salary and/or rate, several factors may be considered as applicable (e.g., site, specialty, service line, years of relevant experience, education, credentials, negotiated contracts, budget and internal equity).

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees and are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. Furthermore, they do not establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of One Brooklyn Health (OBH).

OBH is an equal opportunity employer, it is our policy to provide equal opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, military status, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability or handicap or other characteristics protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.