Course Details
See who this training is for, what you'll learn, and how to access it.
- Topics: Healthy Aging & Older Adults, Health Equity & Social Determinants, Care Coordination, Communication, Violence Prevention & Safety, Dementia Care
- Audience: Community Health Workers (CHWs)
- Format: Learning Track
- Language: English
- Estimated time: 4.5 hours
- Cost: Free
- Added to MCD Learn date: 09/16/2026
- Developed in partnership with CHWs from these organizations:
Community Workforce Institute
MHP Salud
Sinai Chicago
CHW Healthy Aging Specialty Track
The Healthy Aging CHW Specialty Track is a free, self-paced training made for CHWs who work with older adults, whether that's most of your caseload or just some of it. Across 10 short modules (about 4.5 hours total, and you can stop and start anytime), you'll get practical, usable tools: how to tell normal aging from something that needs attention, the 4Ms framework for age-friendly care, how to talk with clients who have hearing or vision changes, how to spot elder abuse and know what to do next, how to support family caregivers who are running on empty, and how to protect your own energy while doing this work.
This isn't generic training repurposed for CHWs. It was built from CHW stories, and reviewed by a national advisory group of CHWs and aging experts, so it reflects what you actually run into in the field, not just what a textbook says should happen.
Learning objectives:
- Distinguish normal aging from age-related conditions and recognize how ageism affects care and outcomes.
- Apply the 4Ms Framework and other practical tools to support age-friendly, equitable care.
- Identify barriers older adults face in accessing care and demonstrate strategies to address them.
- Recognize warning signs of elder abuse, exploitation, and cognitive decline, and identify appropriate referral pathways.
- Apply trauma-informed, culturally responsive communication strategies with older adults and family caregivers.
- Identify strategies for CHW self-care, boundary-setting, and preventing burnout in aging-focused work.
Includes the following modules
Module 1: Introduction to Healthy Aging & Training Overview
Welcomes you to the specialty track, orients you to navigating the training, and introduces the demographic shifts driving the need for CHWs skilled in supporting older adults.
Module 2: Understanding Aging & Ageism
Covers typical physical, cognitive, and emotional changes with age, distinguishes normal aging from chronic conditions, and examines ageism, including how it shows up at the personal, interpersonal, and institutional level, and its impact on CHW-client relationships.
Module 3: The 4Ms Framework
Explains what the 4Ms are (a framework developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement) and why they matter, and shows you how to use it in your own work - not as a checklist, but as a way of thinking - through a brief real-world example.
Module 4: Improving Access in Age-Friendly Care
Covers four common types of access challenges: getting to care, communication, care process, and social/environmental barriers and introduces the Notice-Validate-Navigate approach for identifying what's blocking progress and moving toward one concrete next step.
Module 5: Communicating with Older Adults
Gives you practical strategies for tone, pacing, visuals, plain language, and teach-back methods, helps you communicate with clients who have trouble hearing or seeing, and prepares you to navigate sensitive conversations like end-of-life and dementia through a real-world scenario you'll work through yourself.
Module 6: Elder Abuse, Exploitation & Scams
Covers types of elder abuse, warning signs, safe response and reporting, and CHW referral pathways.
Module 7: Working with Older Adults
Introduces early signs of dementia and ways to support social connection, then builds practical service-navigation skills — helping clients through telehealth, forms, and scheduling, including coordination with care teams. Also covers community-based supports like meals, transportation, falls prevention, and chronic disease self-management.
Module 8: Supporting Family Caregivers
Covers the challenges family caregivers commonly face, the burnout and health impacts of caregiving, and the tools and strategies you can use to support and engage caregivers as partners in care.
Module 9: CHW Self-Care in Aging Work
Helps you cope with different types of grief and loss, recognize burnout, compassion fatigue, and the "strong helper" trap, set and maintain emotional boundaries, and build practical recharge habits into your workday — plus how to access supervision and peer support when you need it.
Module 10: The Full Picture
Reviews key takeaways across modules, reinforces your role in healthy aging, and helps you identify one concrete action you'll take and at least two resources for continued learning.