NYAPRS Note: As ‘peer specialist’ becomes a household term in NY healthcare, it’s important for our advocacy network to understand the importance of the article below. Standardization of service models is challenging even in so-called traditional health programs, but the demand for persons with lived experience could necessitate new peer roles and collaborations that the recovery movement has yet to build or create best practices around. How can the peer community come together to meet a workforce development challenge while retaining the values inherent to the work of peers?
Training a workforce for DSRIP
Crain’s Health Pulse; 7/20/2015
As Performing Provider Systems attempt to fill gaps in their workforce in order to implement DSRIP projects, one of many challenges they face is that of standardizing and legitimizing training for health care professionals. The union 1199 SEIU already is developing curricula to teach relevant skills such as chronic disease management, said Sandi Vito, director of the its League Training and Upgrading Fund. But she said the divide between on-the-job and academic training may hinder the industry’s ability to evolve.
“We want the education [related to DSRIP] to become credit-bearing because it helps people launch career pathways,” said Ms. Vito, speaking at a panel on workforce development at a United Hospital Fund Medicaid event last week. She added that the skills needed for emerging positions such as care managers and navigators should be incorporated into existing academic programs.
There are several milestones related to workforce training and development built into the DSRIP implementation plan. But Medicaid reform may still have a greater impact on the composition of the workforce downstate, said Greg DeWitt, director of data analytics and workforce initiatives at the Iroquois Healthcare Alliance. He noted that New York City hospitals see more Medicaid patients and generate a greater percentage of their revenue from inpatient stays than upstate hospitals.
Although each PPS is charged with responding to the specific needs of its community, Ms. Vito said one of her main concerns is that each will attempt to “reinvent the wheel” by creating their own training programs for emerging positions. Community health workers, for example, already have good training curricula, she noted.
HealthPlus Amerigroup uses a curriculum developed by the Community Health Network of NYC to train employees who visit high-risk clients at their homes, said Dr. Sajidah Husain, the insurer’s New York regional vice president and medical director. Although a standardized curriculum and scope are needed, she said, licensing would be too restrictive. “The idea of community health workers is really about using people in the community and empowering them,” said Dr. Husain.