The State of the Community Health Worker Field in Minnesota
The State of the Community Health Worker Field in Minnesota report provides a descriptive overview of the field within the broader context of national trends and developments. Commissioned by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the report is prepared by the Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance (the Alliance) as a resource for community health workers […]
California Legislature Assembly Bill No. 316
Existing law requires the State Department of Health Services to review and survey the extent to which agricultural workers and their families utilize those public health programs for which they are eligible, including, but not limited to, the Medi-Cal program and the Healthy Families Program. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to […]
Roles and Functions of Community Health Workers in Primary Care
Community health workers have potential to enhance primary care access and quality, but remain underutilized. To provide guidance on their integration, we characterized roles and functions of community health workers in primary care through a literature review and synthesis. Analysis of 30 studies identified 12 functions (ie, care coordination, health coaching, social support, health assess- […]
Health Care Providers Are Hiring the Wrong People
In healthcare hiring there have long been strong prejudices about race, class and educational attainment. Many of our conventions come from an era when healthcare was delivered primarily by doctors and nurses with elite training whose success depended mostly on content expertise. This paradigm is outdated; we now know that social, behavioral and relational factors are […]
A Balanced Portfolio Model For Improving Health: Concept And Vermont’s Experience
A successful strategy for improving population health requires acting in several sectors by implementing a portfolio of interventions. The mix of interventions should be both tailored to meet the community’s needs and balanced in several dimensions – for example, time frame, level of risk, and target population. One obstacle is finding sustainable financing for both […]
Establishing voluntary certification of community health workers in Arizona: a policy case study of building a unified workforce
In this article, we describe the process of unifying the two major CHW workforces in Arizona, promotoras de salud in US-Mexico border communities and community health representatives (CHRs) serving American Indian communities. Differences in the origins, financing, and even language of the population-served contributed to historically divergent interests between CHRs and promotoras. In order to […]
Community Health Workers as Organizational Representatives in Clinical Settings
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. Our results illustrate how CHWs served as bridge builders by acting as gatekeepers and ambassadors […]
Being a Community Health Worker Means Advocating: Participation, Perceptions, and Challenges in Advocacy
Community health workers (CHWs) participate in advocacy as a crucial means to empower clients in overcoming health disparities and to improve the health and social well-being of their communities. Building on previous studies, this article proposes a new framework for conceptualising CHW advocacy, depending on the intended impact level of CHW advocacy. CHWs participate in […]
Promoting Community Health Worker Leadership in Policy Development: Results from a Louisiana Workforce Study
Community health workers (CHWs) are effective in improving public health, and many states are developing policy to support the workforce. In 2019, the Louisiana legislature created the CHW Workforce Study Committee (Committee) of at least half CHWs to study the workforce and provide the state with policy recommendations. The Committee followed national best practices in […]
Recommendations to the Health Policy Commission
Our recommendations center on organizing principles and activities that will support the roles that CHWs play, particularly for underserved and vulnerable populations who face challenges in managing their health and for accessing care. We also recommend, under the relevant criterion, that ACOs demonstrate how they are employing CHWs to meet stated goals. A priority recommendation […]