Community Health Workers as Organizational Representatives in Clinical Settings Roundtable

Community health workers (CHWs) are recognized for their ability to serve as a bridge between communities and the health care system. Given CHWs’ deep community connections, their bridging function is mainly seen as a conduit for community members to access health care and there is limited discussion of CHWs as members of a health care organization. This roundtable presentation seeks to unpack the bridging function of CHWs from a community health center’s perspective. Semi-structured interviews (n=21) were carried out in community health centers (predominantly federally qualified health centers) across four Gulf states with CHWs and CHW supervisors.