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In the United States, as in the rest of the world, Community Health Workers (CHWs) have attracted a great deal of attention lately. In the US this has happened both as a result of ongoing national health care reform and as a general recognition of CHWs’ value and impact on the health of underserved communities in particular. There are some gaps in the US literature … [Read more...] about Selection and training of promotoras: CHW workforce development

Pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria together account for more than half of deaths among children ages 6 months to 5 years. New preventive interventions – such as the pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines – will help reduce this mortality burden. But ensuring prompt and effective treatment of these all-too-common illnesses (particularly among disadvantaged children without … [Read more...] about Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) to improve child health: Key implementation challenges and potential solutions

When you hear the term 'community health worker' you may well have in mind quite a specific profile. You may picture someone doing community talks and going house-to-house giving behavior change counseling or perhaps your image includes dispensing or case-management functions, passing out condoms, oral contraceptives or oral rehydration salts. Commonly, this image includes the … [Read more...] about Maximizing effectiveness: Matching CHWs with CHW programs

To be sure, many questions exist pertaining to the scalability and sustainability of CHW programs. Despite the presence of country examples, not a lot is known about large-scale CHW programs that have been sustained over a relatively long period of time. Documentation of these programs, including how they were scaled up and how they have been sustained, is … [Read more...] about The Scalability and Sustainability of CHW Programs