MA-CEAL Community Health Ambassador Program (CHANGE)

Boston Medical Center (BMC)

Status: Withdrawn

Conditions: Hypertension; Diabetes Mellitus; Health Care Utilization

Treatments: Other: Healthcare appointments; Other: Workshops; Other: Educating participants about healthcare resources

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT07136402

H-45218

OT2HL158287 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This research is being conducted to investigate how to increase primary care health care visits and screenings and treatment for hypertension and diabetes in residents of housing developments in Boston. The investigators are partnering with Boston Housing Authority (BHA) and Trinity housing management to randomize 12 housing developments (6 in intervention and 6 in control). 6 residents from the housing developments will become Community Health Ambassadors (CHA). The CHAs will be trained to conduct "workshops" within the intervention arm. These workshops will cover Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and Hypertension (HTN) information. Along with the workshops, CHAs will act as mentors for the residents and provide them with resources to connect them to primary care, Community Health Centers, food pantry resources, how to get insurance, and other needed services. CHAs will be part-time employees of the Massachusetts Community Engaged Alliance (MA-CEAL), so they will be paid for the work they are doing while simultaneously building their professional skill set.

MA-CEAL's community engagement (CE) team will act as liaisons and mentors for the CHA's to help guide them and also connect them to opportunities for career/personal development.

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Current resident in selected Boston Health Authority (BHA) and Trinity housing developments
• Speak and understand English and/or Spanish

Exclusion criteria

• Does not speak English or Spanish
• Not a resident of the development

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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0 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention (Phase A)

Experimental group

Description:

Community health centers randomized into this arm will receive study interventions in the first 18 months of the study.

Treatment:

Other: Educating participants about healthcare resources

Other: Workshops

Other: Healthcare appointments

Control (Phase B)

Experimental group

Description:

Community health centers randomized into this arm will be wait listed and will not receive study interventions during the first 18 months of the study. They will receive study interventions during the last 12 months of the study.

Treatment:

Other: Educating participants about healthcare resources

Other: Workshops

Other: Healthcare appointments