Project ECHO is applying the ECHO model to several innovative care-delivery strategies. Our programs support primary-care teams, who provide specialized patient care, through education and mentorship.
Through ECHO, the clinical teams gain expertise fast and expand patients' access to care. In each case, additional financial support is provided to the primary care team so they can focus on delivering specialized care.
Community Health Workers participate with multidisciplinary teams located at sites throughout New Mexico. Teams may include a primary care physician, nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant, medical assistant and behavioral health specialists.
Teams are trained together through the following training methods:
Teams use holistic approaches to address the social determinants of health in rural and traditionally underserved populations.
To support and improve the skills of CHWs, we developed ECHO® Community Health Worker training models for several health and medical conditions, based on the needs of providers and underserved communities around New Mexico. We created and implemented the models with input from experienced CHWs who served as ECHO’s community training facilitators. Like our Innovative Care Models, Specialty training for CHWs includes:
CHWs are trained for specialized interventions with a high level of rigor - using best practices and a robust curriculum - but are taught to use their skills in a broad application that allows CHWs to serve in a variety of contexts (e.g., clinics, diabetes or heart health programs, home visits, elder care, or assisted living centers), perform a variety of roles, learn new roles, and improve their employment opportunities.
There is no cost to participants (no tuition, free IT support). Programs also include extensive evaluation. We provide quality assurance and ongoing learning via weekly teleconferences during and following the training period. The state of New Mexico provides basic certification through the New Mexico Department of Health. Project ECHO provides specialized training in areas such as diabetes, opioid use disorder and COVID-19 and vaccine confidence as well as added endorsements for specific skills that are mastered during training.
All of our CHW programs include best practices from adult learning and popular education models.
In Practice:
Do you want more information about replicating a CHW Training Program? Or using ECHO to train your CHWs? Join the ECHO Movement and contact the ECHO CHW team.
Six Principles of Adult Learning (Knowles):
The process of popular education has the following general characteristics:
“[AASTEC Partners in Good Health and Wellness Program] was one of the greatest and funniest training’s about health and wellness that I have been to. It was very interactive and informative, but most important it was to the point and easy to learn.”
- Carmen Raell, Community Health Representative (CHR)
“The case presentations gave me the tools to deal with some of the same issues that my patients go through.”
- Opioid Addiction Treatment ECHO Participant
“The staff is incredible.”
- Opioid Addiction Treatment ECHO Participant
“I am so excited and passionate about Project ECHO because it allows me to work with other professionals whose contributions as Community Health Workers (CHW) and Certified Peer Support Workers have an invaluable impact on the field of Substance Use Disorders!”
- Nanette Herrera, EHDOC Service Coordinator, Opioid Addiction Treatment ECHO for CHWs and Medical Assistants Participant