To support quality CHW program design and implementation, USAID, UNICEF, the Community Health Impact Coalition, and Initiatives Inc. have updated and adapted the Community Health Worker Assessment and Improvement Matrix (CHW AIM) Program Functionality Matrix tool. This tool can be applied at district, regional, and national levels to identify and close gaps in design and implementation and, ultimately, enhance program performance.
This article describes a distance learning approach for CHWs using the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model™, which is a video-conferencing-based mentorship model. The authors describe the ECHO model for CHW training and mentoring using case examples and pre/post-surveys from an obesity prevention and addiction recovery program. They conclude that the ECHO model has advantages over traditional training methods for CHWs and can be adapted to other countries.
A meta-synthesis of the existing literature, this article examines 33 publications to identify the factors that enable community health workers to bring about behavior change. It explicitly recognizes the difference between full-time trained and salaried community health workers and part-time community volunteers and proposes an approach to better coordinating the community health workforce to serve health, behavior change and empowerment needs.
APC’s Community Health Policy Matters video tells the story of fictional characters Winnie and Mary, and how a fragmented health system affects each woman’s ability to access family planning services in her respective community. This animated video highlights how policy can improve the health system for women.
While CHW interventions have proved effective in hypertension control among ethnic minorities in the US, few have focused on Asian Americans. This randomized controlled trial assesses the efficacy of a CHW intervention in New York City to improve hypertension management among Filipino Americans with uncontrolled blood pressure.
Podcast: Susan Keen, director of the Pathways to Better Health Program, discusses how CHWs are able to assist people with their social and health needs, have a direct impact on improving the overall health of a community, and decrease unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency department visits.
Older Latino adults experience a higher incidence of multiple coexisting medical conditions than non-Hispanics and whites and face barriers to diabetes self-management. The results of this REACH Detroit CHW randomized control intervention suggests that CHWs may be effective in reducing barriers to diabetes self-management. Using descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression, the study evaluates the effects of a six-month CHW intervention on older Latinos versus younger participants.
The authors conducted a two-arm 2 year crossover trial to determine the effectiveness of clinical pharmacists and community health workers (CHWs) in increasing glycemic control among low-income ethnic minority populations. No significant difference was found between the clinical pharmacist and CHW team versus the clinical pharmacist working alone.
A new quality improvement program to increase the knowledge and skills of community health on an American Indian Reservation related to diabetes was tested. The authors found that the program improved knowledge and management of diabetes.
This study examines the effectiveness of a community health worker (CHW) program, which aims to address client objectives for frequent emergency department users. 43% of total objectives were achieved and objective achievement was linked with increased client engagement. The authors offer several suggestions as to why the objective achievement was low and how to better engage clients in CHW services.
