The most recent convening for community navigators across different sectors was led by Katrina Mattson, a community health worker instructor at Berkshire Community College and health services manager at Tapestry Health. She provided an overview of key best practices for quality navigation.
“Because we see the role of navigators as key to assisting families and individuals in reaching their goals, we felt it was important to have a session focused on improving their skill set. This was a great start. The group was fully engaged, asked great questions, provided real world examples, and just had an overall powerful discussion on key skills,” said Katherine von Haefen, Berkshire United Way Director of Community Impact. “We will continue this momentum to provide more learning and training opportunities for our network of community navigators and care coordinators.”
If there was one message Katrina wanted to impart, it was this: community health workers (or navigators) serve as the bridge for the client and the service provider. For this relationship to work, navigators should always be curious and ask questions; should think about the challenges a client may be facing; should never let their feelings, beliefs, and biases interfere; and should acknowledge that each client is the “expert” in their situation.
Taking into consideration culture and health beliefs, she said that “understanding the way we look at the problem helps us understand how to address the problem.”
Using healthcare as an example, Katrina asked the group to identify reasons why a client would not seek help from a doctor – and there were many responses, including passed down health beliefs, cost, fear, and biases. “It’s a big list, which makes our jobs difficult,” she said.
Oftentimes, navigators must change their lens to see “the problem in the situation,” not the person, said Katrina, and to be that bridge “there needs to be a partnership.”
This partnership begins with motivational interviewing, an evidence-based treatment method that involves acceptance, compassion, and evocation. Navigators will gain the trust of a client if they put the client first, explore and address their ambivalence toward change, encourage them to talk about changes they would like to see, and help them make a plan and set goals to make these changes.
“You want the client to come back,” she said, and help them to see that navigators are partners in this work and are there to help them attain goals, access services, and meet their needs.
Katrina reminded the group: “We are not the client. We are not the provider. We are just the bridge.” When one navigator shared how challenging the work can be, Katrina said, “that’s why these meetings are so important.”
