Interventions that address socioeconomic determinants of health are receiving considerable attention from policy makers and health care executives, attention fueled in part by expected returns on investment. However, many current estimates of returns on investment are likely overestimated. This study presents a return-on-investment analysis based on a randomized controlled trial of Individualized Management for Patient-Centered Targets (IMPaCT), a standardized community health worker intervention that addresses unmet social needs for disadvantaged people.
Successful attainment of Neglected Tropical Disease goals and other health interventions depends on maximizing frontline implementers’ performance. This study aimed to capture and translate knowledge, problems and solutions, identified by implementers, to enhance NTD program delivery at the community level in Nigeria.
Interest in expanding community health worker (CHW) roles into clinic settings is growing. This study evaluates both CHW readiness to be integrated into clinic-based community health worker programs (CHW) and patient readiness and intent to utilize CHW programs.
The Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone has operationalized a nationwide Digital Health Strategy to guide the rollout of e-Health and m-Health solutions. This article presents the findings of a pilot that tested a CHW mobile training and support (MOTS) service using interactive voice response technology (IVR). The platform delivers voice recorded training content in local languages on the topics of Vaccines and (Ebola) Disease Surveillance & Outbreak Response.
The Indian National Program for Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, Cancer and Stroke (NPCDCS) aims to deliver non- communicable disease (NCD) care via primary healthcare teams which include Indian CHWs know as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs).This study sought to understand the current capacity and challenges faced by ASHAs hrough a desktop review of NPCDCS and ASHA policy documents combined with group discussions with community members from the Guntur region of Andhra Pradesh in India.
This systematic review assesses the evidence on integrating community health workers (CHWs) into the delivery of mental health services in the United States and low- and middle- income countries. It includes 43 articles of which 39 are trials. The article highlights CHW background characteristics, their role in the mental health service provision, and the types of interventions in which they were involved.
Integration of mental health into primary care is essential to meet the growing needs of populations in LMICs. This study presents the case for a collaborative project in Kenya that aims to train primary care and community health workers regarding mental health in a manner through which it can be integrated into their routine work.
Task sharing as an approach to target mental health through community health workers is slowly gaining attention and support in LMICs. This multi-site study aimed to determine key factors that could drive task sharing in different contexts along with providing insight regarding challenges associated with the approach.
Tuberculosis (TB) represents a leading infectious cause of death globally. New and novel approaches are required to reduce TB rates and mortality. This article reviews community health worker (CHW) led efforts to prevent and treat TB in order to evaluate the potential of CHW driven programs to effectively impact the future of TB prevention and care.
A notable amount of progress has been made in reducing maternal mortality rates over the past 25 years in Senegal. However, the national maternal mortality ratio remains unacceptably high. With mobile health (mHealth) interventions been used increasingly in rural and remote areas of the country, this study looks at the application of CommCare. CommCare is an application that runs on cell phones distributed to community health workers to enroll and track women through their pregnancy, birth and post-partum.
