Community Social Risk Outreach Program

At Southern West Virginia Health System, we are committed to providing everyone in our communities with access to health-related services so that each person can live their healthiest life.

In some situations, a person may find that their health is impacted by circumstances that aren’t traditionally thought of as having a direct impact on their health outcome. Those circumstances could be:

  • Transportation difficulties, making it harder for a person to access healthcare, food resources, socialization opportunities
  • Economic difficulties, making it harder for a person to access having water, electric, and/or gas at the same time, having to choose between healthy food resources or medications
  • Literacy difficulties, making it harder for a person to fully understand all of the steps necessary to keep good records of their blood pressure readings at home to bring those details to their next healthcare visit to assist with properly treating their hypertension diagnosis

All of the above are areas that our Community Social Outreach Workers, also known as Community Health Workers, are ready and able to help a patient address!

“Our Community Social Risk Outreach Workers at Southern West Virginia Health System are Community Health Workers that help our patients achieve health equity (level the playing field) by assisting patients with those non-medical factors known as Social Drivers of Health (SDoH) that impact their health. Community Health Workers (CHWs) are usually trusted members of their community who can empower fellow community members (our patients) through shared experiences, education and resources. They can promote, encourage, and support positive self-care and self-management behaviors with patients and can act as a liaison within our health system.

This is a great service that we have been able to offer to our eligible patients. Participants are linked with needed social support services, and they are also receiving increased social interaction. We have seen this improve the participants’ confidence in advocating for themselves and having a positive impact on their mental health as well. All of these things help our patients reach their highest level of health. “-Andi Byrd, MSW, LCSW Southern West Virginia Health System Health Equity Manager

Social Drivers of Health are nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes.  These are environments where people are born, where they grow, work, live, and age.

Some examples of Social Drivers of Health may be:

  • Access to health care services
  • Childhood development
  • Education
  • Food Insecurity
  • Job Insecurity
  • Language and literacy skills
  • Income
  • Polluted air
  • Polluted water
  • Safe Housing
  • Social inclusion
  • Transportation
  • And more

Community health workers are people who work with patients to provide resources and services to those that may have a barrier when it comes to social drivers of health.  Community health workers help those that are battling chronic diseases improve their overall quality of life through building connections and providing beneficial resources to help combat the non-medical barriers to care that one may face.

A chronic disease is defined by the CDC as conditions that last 1 or more years and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both. Some examples of chronic diseases are heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, tooth decay, and more.

To learn more about our community health worker services at Southern West Virginia Health System, please call 304-824-5806 ext. 1289.

To learn more about community health workers, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/chronic-disease/php/community-health-worker-resources/

To learn more about Social Determinants of Health, please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/about/priorities/why-is-addressing-sdoh-important.html