T1DTechCHW: Enhancing the Community Health Worker Model to Promote Diabetes Technology Use in Young Adults From Underrepresented Minority Groups

"As defined by the CDC, a CHW is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of a community or who has a thorough understanding of the community being served, and leverages this unique position to link health systems, social services, and communities. CHWs engender trust with patients by having direct community and lived experience, offering specific support and empathy that may be difficult for other diabetes care professionals to provide. In addition, CHWs have firsthand understanding of cultural barriers to traditional western healthcare and can promote patient-centered culturally-relevant care. They enhance team-based care by helping providers with extra outreach, social needs management, time-consuming tasks, and aligning patient-provider priorities.~CHWs in this project will provide social needs assessment and management, introduction to diabetes technologies, and support for onboarding to technology."