When she was assigned her first HUB participant over a year ago, HUB Community Health Worker Cait Farber wasn’t sure what to expect. Her participant was pregnant at the time with multiple physical disabilities that had made it challenging for her to thrive in her day-to-day life. In fact, her physical disabilities were so limiting, that she shared with Cait her consideration to terminate her pregnancy. Cait also noticed that she didn’t have much of a support system, which layered on the challenges she faced.
Working closely with her participant and her participant’s physicians, Cait first got her connected with waiver services through HUB care coordination agency Alleghenies United Cerebral Palsy, which gave her two home health aides to help her with daily tasks. Once this herculean task was completed, Cait then worked to get her connected to rental assistance through the Dorothy Day Center and Peer Empowerment Network, as well as the medical assisted transportation program (MATP) through Community Action Partnership of Cambria County.
Her participant decided to move forward with the pregnancy, and Cait met with her throughout that time, building rapport and providing support. Once she had the baby, Cait took note of how much she had grown over the past several months, especially because of a challenge her participant experienced early on with her baby’s sensitivity to formula. Her participant brought up her baby’s aversion to formula to her pediatrician, but told Cait “I knew something was wrong, and no one was listening.” She kept fighting though, with Cait’s support, and finally found out after seeing a urologist that her baby had treatable G.I. issues. Cait said her participant’s perseverance in getting her baby the help it needed showed a dramatic change from her perspective when they first met.
“From where she started to where she is now is leaps and bounds of difference,” Cait said. “She really became an advocate for her child and an advocate for herself.”
Like she does for all her participants, Cait also created a binder to help her participant organize all of her household needs, including a list of medications, doctors, assistance services, nutritious recipes, and more. One year later, she continues to have a strong relationship with her participant and meets with her regularly to address needs that come up as a mom with a newborn.