In August 2021, the Institute for Public Health Innovation’s (IPHI) Community Health Workers (CHW) for a Healthy VA project was awarded a three-year grant by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Community Health Workers (CHW)for COVID Response and Resilient Communities. CHWs for a Healthy VA identified four regions within the Commonwealth of Virginia. These regions were targeted for COVID-19 response and recovery efforts due to their high COVID-19 pandemic rates. The four catchment areas are Richmond/Petersburg, Mount Rogers Health District, Norfolk/Portsmouth, and Danville/Pittsylvania.
Southwest Virginia is a densely populated and rural area. In general, southwest Virginia is under-resourced, with predominately low-income families who are uninsured or under-insured. According to the United Way of Southwest Virginia, approximately 43 percent of households in this service area live in poverty or are considered A.L.I.C.E (asset limited, income constrained, employed). Southwest Virginia typically has worse health outcomes than the other areas in Virginia, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 health crisis.
The CDC’s funding for CHWs for a Healthy VA enabled IPHI to partner with three organizations in southwest Virginia. Ballad Healthcare System, Mount Rogers Health District, and Healing Hands Health Center were selected to hire nine community health workers. The nine CHWs have provided critical, on-the-ground support by strengthening linkages to care and other wraparound services. In just a year, our partners have been extremely successful in identifying and responding to the community’s needs.
While it was difficult to select one story to share, there was one story from Healing Hands Health Center (HHHC) that stands out. One of the incredible CHWs at HHHC shared a story about a client highlighting the power of CHWs and how a CHW can completely transform someone’s life. It has been said, “if you can change the life of one person, you’ve done your job.” Brea Burke shared the story of her client Myra. By being intentional and engaging, Brea identified gaps that could have gone unnoticed and misdiagnosed in the current medical system. In addition to sharing Myra’s story, we have enclosed a PowerPoint presentation from HHHC, which provides a snapshot of the HHHC daily work and meets the qualitative data needs required for this federal project.
Myra’s Story
Told by Brea Burke, Healing Hands Health Center CHW
“I met Ms. Myra several months ago when she was visiting the doctor at our clinic. She was referred to me because the clinic staff thought that she might need some extra support. When Myra came into the office, I was just finishing up a meeting with another patient, but I overheard her talking to the receptionist. She told her that it might take some extra time to fill out her paperwork, because she had carpal tunnel and it was painful for her to write. I told her that if she would give me one minute, I would help her complete the paperwork. After we finished the paperwork, I immediately set up a follow-up meeting with Myra at her home, so that I could get to know her better.
Myra had been repeatedly telling her doctor that she was experiencing pain all over her body. She said that the pain happened all the time and that she was always sore. She reported that she could hardly get up in the mornings and when she did, she could barely move. Myra was in constant pain, and it was making her depressed. When I got to Myra’s home for my first visit, the first thing that I noticed was that she had absolutely no furniture. Nothing! She had a little TV and a dinner tray with a computer on it. She also had a small wooden kitchen chair to sit at the computer because she worked from home. Myra had no couch, no other chairs, and no bed.
When I walked in, Myra offered me a seat in her wooden chair, the only seat she had in her home. She sat on the floor next to me. As we began to talk, she said, ‘I guess you noticed that I have no furniture.’ My response was, ‘Well yes, I guess I kind of noticed that,’ with a warm smile on my face. Myra went on to tell me that the multifamily house that she lives in broke out in bedbugs several months ago. It gave her severe anxiety and she threw out everything. The complex treated her house for the bedbugs, but now she cannot afford to replace the things that she lost. She had been looking for deals but doesn’t bring home much money after bills.
Myra said that she did not have any family or friends in the area to help her. She ended up in SW Virginia by chance. She told me how she had been mentally and physically abused as a child by her mother. Five years ago, she found out that her mother had been diagnosed with dementia and there was no one to care for her. Myra decided to forgive and forget and move to SW Virginia to care for her sick mother. After only a few days of trying to deal with her mother’s dementia and then reliving her own childhood abuse, she went into a horrible mental state and had to be admitted into an inpatient mental facility. Through luck or whatever you might call it, Myra ended up in Healing Hands Health Center. When she was released, she stayed in the area, got a job, and started working from home.
Myra shared many stories with me during our time of getting to know one another. She talked about having a son at an early age that she had to give up for adoption, meeting the love of her life, and then him dying. [She also talked about] her depression, her bout with alcohol and drugs, and a struggle with a bipolar disorder diagnosis. She shared how she used to like to get out and walk to the grocery store, but one day she was approached by a man who tried to push her into a van. Now Myra is afraid to walk anywhere.
After listening to Myra’s story, I asked her what were the three most important things that I could help her with right now. She said getting some furniture in her apartment would make her house feel like a home. Within 24 hours, HHHC had a bed donated and a couple of pieces of furniture. Myra called me the next day and said that for the first time in six months, when she woke up, she was not in pain. We figured out that all her physical pain was coming from the fact that she had been sleeping on the floor.
Her next goal was to make it to all her doctor’s appointments because she had been experiencing stomach pain. We found out that there was a city bus stop right near Myra’s complex, so she didn’t have to walk to the doctor’s and fear being assaulted. Myra figured out the bus schedule and began to feel more independent.
Her final goal was to get an appointment with a mental health professional so she could get all her medication regulated. I helped her to get an appointment with her previous mental health physician, who was able to get her back on her meds and now her mood swings are stabilized.
Myra has been working extra hours at her job, which is huge because previously she had been missing several hours per week due to her mental illness. She recently accepted a new position, training the new hires to stay professional while talking to difficult customers over the phone. She attends all her mental health and PCP appointments by riding the city bus and calls me about once a month to give me updates. She even has gotten a new cat.
I am so proud of Myra. I recently spoke with her and she told me that someone had asked her out on a date. While this may be the end of my story, it is not the end of Myra’s. She has many more life goals to achieve.”
Myra’s story shows how community health workers build trust by listening intently. By paying attention to the client’s needs, the CHW can identify what some might see as the simplest need, but those simple needs can change a person’s life.
We are so proud of this project and the work our partners have accomplished in Year-1. We look forward to continuing this work and highlighting the important work of our community health workers in Year-2 of CHWs for a Healthy VA!