Features

“What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” – Glenn Close Mental health represents a growing global public health concern. Given its nature, it requires tailored approaches that are sensitive to the individual’s needs and promote their sustainable growth and healing. Community health workers (CHWs)…

Background Rigorous studies — randomized control trials — indicate that community health workers can effectively deliver health services as diverse as birth control injections and HIV care management. They also show that CHWs can ultimately reduce child morbidity, child mortality and neonatal mortality.[1] Yet studies on national CHW programs in…

Background and Rationale Community health workers (CHWs) are vital to country strategies to achieve universal health coverage (UHC). As health systems come to rely on CHWs to deliver a growing number of interventions and activities, the potential for overburdening them with unrealistic expectations increases. Limited human and financial resources, combined with a…

Background and Rationale Community health worker (CHW) programmes are complex entities, operating at the interface of the formal health system, households and communities, and involving a wide array of actors and relationships. The advent of the Millennium Development Goals saw a mushrooming of often poorly coordinated, disease-specific (HIV, TB, maternal-child…

Background and Rationale  Studies show that trained, high-performing, community health workers (CHWs) can save more than three million lives annually, when integrated into the primary health care system1. Unfortunately, many community health worker programs are plagued by ineffective and expensive training and support, making them difficult to implement at scale….