The St. Joseph County Health Department has been happy with its 3-year-old community health worker initiative, and it’s ready to get the word out.
It started in 2021 as an effort to prevent those who generally suffer the worse health outcomes, the poor and people of color, from contracting Covid. The health department got a U.S. Centers for Disease Control grant to hire eight community health workers.
That grant expired in August but the workers’ salaries have been picked up by the new Health First Indiana funding. That money is combining with county money to fund four more workers focused on lead poisoning prevention. The state health department is funding two more positions on maternal/infant health.
That’s 14 community health workers altogether, connecting people to community resources like housing referrals, mental health referrals, transportation for medical appointments, help paying for emergency needs like utility bills, and help finding primary care doctors and child care.
To market the program, on Tuesday county commissioners approved the department’s request for a three-month contract with Comcast. The county will pay the company’s marketing group to produce ads for both traditional TV and streaming, targeting lower-income single and single parent viewers.
