Community Health Representative Program Looks Forward To 2025
The Indian Health Service (IHS) Community Health Representative Program (CHR) closed out a successful 2024 and will utilize its Strategic Plan as the foundation for the new year. In 2025, the CHR Program will continue supporting workforce training needs, program development, the provision of direct services, care coordination, system integration, and building capacity of CHR programs with Medicaid and Medicare billing and reimbursement of services.
Awareness of CHR Roles
Understanding the roles of a CHR requires continued communication, information, and knowledge sharing to increase awareness of this unique workforce. “CHRs are effective in using non-clinical approaches such as community outreach, home visits, coaching, social support, facilitation, and engagement as ways of assisting and complimenting patient care needs. CHRs also contribute to improving patient health outcomes in primary care settings, helping to bridge cultural and language barriers between providers and patients, increase screenings and referrals, expand care team outreach, and support patients to follow through with care plans,” said Michelle Archuleta, CHR Consultant for IHS Division of Clinical and Community Services.
Partnerships
The CHR Program partnered with the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board to deliver the Indian Country CHR ECHO (Tele-ECHO) Program. These online trainings were designed to support CHRs and other IHS employees working to improve health behaviors and conditions at the community level.
Another key CHR partnership included working with the IHS Alzheimer’s Program to implement a dementia screening initiative called the CHR Mini-CogŠ pilot. Building on the lessons learned and successes of last year’s CHR pilot, from January through July 2025, twenty CHR program sites will conduct screenings of older adults, track results, provide dementia education, and make referrals for follow-up care.
Communications
This spring, four videos will be released highlighting CHR programs and their benefits through the lens of several American Indian and Alaska Native communities across the United States. In addition to filming the videos, the CHR Program coordinated and photographed CHRs providing services, such as health education, medication management, and case management, for use in CHR Program products. (Photo left: CHR Hummer Phillips checks on a patient during a home visit in Robbinsville, North Carolina.)
“We have the opportunity to take a fresh look at the CHR workforce from their perspective and that of the patient. We will tell the story of the unique needs met through this program. Our robust communications plan includes an increased social media presence, blog posts, and our newly created CHR newsletter format,” Archuleta said.
Workforce Training
E-learning plays a huge role in CHR programs. In 2024, over 1,100 CHRs received e-learning training with the IHS CHR Program. In 2025, an advanced and specialty training series will be added to support continuing education credits for the CHR workforce.
This is only a snapshot of the many services the National CHR Program will continue to make available to support the CHR workforce. Visit the website to read more about the CHR program and its contributions to the health of American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
