Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta will kick off a five-week health worker training program for high school students Saturday.
The idea is to increase the number of trained student community health workers to help underserved communities and to provide a health careers pipeline program for underserved students.
During the summer program, students will learn from experts about community health, especially in their own communities. The program will continue into the school year, where students will design and implement community-based health initiatives.
The program is the brainchild of Dr. Arletha Livingston, director of Innovations Learning Laboratory for Population Health and assistant professor in family medicine and community health and preventative medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine.
She thought of the idea when she was working with the school’s Patient-Centered Medical Home and Neighborhood program a few years ago. The project provided in-home care for high-risk patients, but Livingston says the program couldn’t find enough health workers.
That’s when she thought about training high school students.
So, the High School Community Health Worker Training Program began in 2015.
“Some of the reasons why the students like this program, and they want to join this program, is they may have family members who are experiencing chronic diseases,” she says. “So they may have a grandmother who may have diabetes, for example, and they don’t know what to do. So, they’re really interested in being able to help their own family with their health conditions.”
Livingston says some program participants have already entered the health care field, including one student who became a doula.
The United Health Foundation donated $1.2 million to fund the program initially.
Dr. Linda Britton, the regional vice president and senior medical director in the Southeastern United States for United Healthcare, hopes the program will inspire students.
“I’m hoping that this is a pipeline for future health care workers,” she says. “Georgia ranks 41st in the nation in terms of overall health. We have a shortage of health workers and nurses and physicians, and so I just think this is a tremendous pipeline for the future of these communities and for health care in general.”
The program begins with a health fair at Club E Atlanta on Saturday, starting at 9 a.m.
