MO Pharmacist August 2022

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are people from the community, a pharmacy technician for ex ample, who connects individuals with organizations to fulfill their needs. This includes addressing social determinants of health (SDoH), which includes helping someone get transportation to their healthcare appointments, connecting themwith food banks, or many other solutions to support nonclinical needs. Community pharmacists are already an information, education and health care hub re ceiving information, such as prescriptions fromall of the various doctors and specialists for each patient. Similar to pharmacy services, many community resources are being underutilized due to lack of awareness. Pharmacy technicians who are trained and serve in a dual role as CHWs serve as a referral hub and effectively determine what support their fellow community members need. to incorporate CHWs into the pharmacy workflow. There is an other element to pharmacy technicians becoming CHWs that is valuable, and that is their proximity to a clinician, the pharmacist. This powerhouse team of patient advocates, community support, and health care professionals has public health organizations taking notice. Through a collaboration among MPA, L&S Pharmacy, and CEimpact, the first virtual CHWcourse for pharmacy technicians was developed and is now being offered in Missouri and several other states. This course is specifically designed with pharmacy workflows and processes in mind and utilizes relevant case studies specific to pharmacy. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has partnered with MPA to provide grant funding to cover scholarships for pharmacy technicians to complete the course. In addition, for MPA business members, pharmacies can receive implementation and onboarding stipends to support the integration of the CHW activities into the pharmacy after the technician becomes a credentialled CHW. You can now get your Community Health Worker training paid for, for free! free! free! Ultimately, incorporating CHWs into the pharmacy workflow provides extensive care coordination be yond the pharmacy walls to help bridge gaps in care, expand access to care, and improve health outcomes for patients and communities. While your pharmacy technicians who become CHWs may never end up in a superhero comic book, they’ll definitely be heroes to your patients! • Organizations supporting: MPA and the MO DHSS • What are the grant details? $3,000/month stipend for 6 months Community HealthWorkers (CHWs): A Favorite Topic in PublicHealth and How Pharmacies Can Get Involved by DR. ANNIE EISENBEIS, PharmD, MBA CHWs currently work in settings like clinics, nursing homes and health systems. Because pharmacies provide an ideal setting for routine as sessments, monitoring and follow-up for patients, it makes sense

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• What is required? Collect data, train 1 pharmacy tech, and attend trainings either offline or online • Application information: Contact Dr. Annie Eisenbeis for more information by email at annie@morx.com. You must be a licensed pharmacy in the state of Missouri to participate.

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