Date Completed

Winter 2013

Document Type

Masters Capstone Project

Degree Name

Master of Social Work (MSW)

Department

Social Work

Abstract

Nearly one million individuals do not have health insurance in Washington State. King County alone has over 200,000 residents living without health care coverage. Without it, many people are forgoing preventative care that could be potentially lifesaving. For this reason, the public, particularly low-income individuals and families, need an increased awareness of health care reform policies and how it will impact them in order to reduce the uninsured rates and improve health outcomes. This intervention, a door-to-door outreach training for community health workers, is an opportunity to address disparities in health care coverage. The three-hour course targets communities with high uninsured populations. It is designed to teach community leaders about health care reform and how to enroll their fellow community members in health insurance plans. These culturally-competent leaders, who are also often linguistically-competent too, will be able to seek out and help those that are not being caught by other outreach programs through clinics or health care related agencies. Overall, the goal of this intervention is to increase the number of insured individuals and families in Washington State, particularly in regions that are low-income with high uninsured rates.

Included in

Social Work Commons

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