Ethics and professionalism of a community health worker: A virtue ethics approach
Community health workers are the link between the community and the health system, delivering primary care services at the frontline. Every profession has its own ethics and professional values, and there is a need to formulate the ethics of community health work which should be informed by their rich experiential wisdom. In one such effort, […]
CHWs for a Healthy Virginia Finance Advisory Committee
This document is an agenda for a meeting of the Healthy Virginia Finance Advisory Committee. The purpose of this committee is to convene stakeholders to support the sustainable financing of CHWs in different healthcare settings.
Knowledge and Attitudes of Potential Community Health Worker Employers: Findings from the State of Arkansas, USA
Community health workers (CHWs) are critical to health equity efforts, but sustaining CHW programs is challenging. Understanding stakeholders’ knowledge and attitudes about CHWs can inform strategies to advance this important workforce. The authors implemented an online survey of potential CHW employers to learn their perceptions of CHWs’ roles, outcomes, and abilities to affect important health […]
Hiring Practices that Support State Integration of Community Health Workers
Community Health Workers (CHWs) have an unusually close understanding of the areas they serve. This trusting relationship enables CHWs to serve as a liaison or community link between health care and social services and the community to increase access to services, improve the quality and cultural competency of the delivered services, and increase health outcomes […]
A New Way to Support Frequent Emergency Department Visitors
A Texas safety-net system has shifted its approach to caring for regular emergency department users.
Development of Training Curriculum to Improve Patient Communication Skills and Social Support
Effective provider communication skills are important for patient decision-making and under-standing, particularly for those with low health literacy. A gap exists in training methods and curriculum for community health workers (CHWs). Through a clinical and academic partnership, pilot training curriculum focused on patient communication skills was developed to align with CHW scope of work. The […]
Indiana Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning Response to CHW Reimbursement Initiative
This document is a response from the Indiana Office of Medicaid Policy and to questions around the community health worker (CHW) reimbursement initiative.
Effect of a Community Health Worker Intervention on Acute Care Use, Advance Care Planning, and Patient-Reported Outcomes Among Adults With Advanced Stages of Cancer
Deficiencies in advance care planning and symptom management are associated with avoidable acute care use among patients with cancer. Community health worker (CHW)–led approaches may be an approach to reduce acute care use but remain untested in community settings. The objective of this study was to determine whether a CHW-led advance care planning and symptom […]
Building Community Power to Dismantle Policy-Based Structural Inequity in Population Health
Population health strategies tend to focus on individuals’ behaviors, genes, or health care access, yet it is well established that socioecological conditions are fundamental to health and strongly influenced by policy. In the US, health and other policies continue to be shaped by the country’s unique legacy of racial and economic segregation. Policy reform must […]
‘I Certainly Wasn’t As Patient-Centred’: Impacts and Potentials of Cross-Training Paramedics as Community Health Workers
This article explores how a group of paramedics were cross-trained as community health workers (CHWs) in Indiana. Cross-training paramedics as CHWs provided a foundation to better understand the social issues that occur outside of the hospital and clinic, thereby enabling further empathy among paramedics and seeking means to connect patients to other health and social […]