BALTIMORE — "We believe there is no church without community and there is no community with church," said Tracy Davis-Hunt.
Sitting in the heart of West Baltimore, Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church is dedicated to its community partners, partners like Johns Hopkins Hospital and its Community Health Workers program.
"It's been a very rich experience, very informational, a lot of resources and I never would have had access to," Davis-Hunt added.
Davis-Hunt is a lifelong member of the church, but in the last year she added another hat, she became a Community Health Worker (CHW).
"I had a person that I worked with as a CHW, her insulin co-pay was $300. She was gonna either eat or get a prescription."
Fortunately, as a Community Health Worker, Davis-Hunt was able to prevent that.
In her role, she's doing everything from helping people get their medication to helping them create advance directives.
"She really helped me a lot with that and I don't know that I would have been able to do it on my own without having some assistance," Davis-Hunt said.
Jennifer Hines believes the CHW's are just what the community needs.
"It's major because we have people who are not getting healthcare because they don't know that there are things available to them. They don't have insurance. They know they can't pay privately.....We can give somebody a telephone number all day but to have somebody say I'm actually gong to call somebody for you. I'm actually got to do some things for you, with you, that's amazing," Hines said.
"Their role is to fill in the gap where medicine falls, where health systems can't reach," Hines added.
John's Hopkins physician Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos is passionate about the program.
Through Howard County Medical Center, they've trained about 100 Community Health Workers with about a dozen working in the Hopkins system.
It's 13 weeks of training where they become a jack of all trades.
They learn everything from CPR to information on health screenings to mental health services to finding clients the transportation.
Dr. G says the CHW's practice holistic health.
"I'm a physician. I prescribe medicine. I discuss medical things. I help diagnose and treat, but all of my interventions will be undone by social factors that I have no responsibility over, even though I hold 100% accountability over my patients."
Dr. G believes CHW's are a workforce that can revolutionize the healthcare system.
"I have patients that are struggling with diabetes. I can give them all the insulin in the world, but if they don't live in a place where they can access food, that can better promote their diabetic care, it's not going to help with that," Dr. G said.
"You meet them where they are, literally during the program I met with someone who has homeless, and I met them at the shelter where they were living. It was a hotel,"Dr. G added.
Davis-Hunt has always been active in her church, now as a CHW she says she's doing it in a more official role.
"Just the thanks from a client, just to know that somebody heard them and to say no you don't have to pay that kind of money, no you don't have to do this alone, yes there are resources for you and let me help you. That's rewarding," Davis-Hunt said.
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