Community Health Worker Task Force Recommendations Report for Healthier Washington

The Community Health Worker (CHW) Task Force, was convened with the overarching purpose of developing policy and system change recommendations to align the Community Health Worker workforce with the work of the Healthier Washington initiative. Task force members considered the continuum of CHWs from volunteers, to CHWs employed as generalists who support the overall health and well-being of individuals and communities, to CHWs working in specialized roles as members of care coordination teams. The Healthier Washington initiative has three main areas of action to achieve the goals of the initiative: 1) building healthier communities through a collaborative regional approach; 2) ensuring health care focuses on the whole person; and 3) improving how services are paid for. Convening the CHW task force acknowledged that based on their life experiences and role as health influencers within their communities, Community Health Workers are necessary to achieve the goals of Healthier Washington within the changing environment of health reform. This assumption is rooted in research that demonstrates CHWs can improve health outcomes and the quality of care while achieving significant cost savings, particularly when working with underserved populations.

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