CHW Central

A global resource for and about Community Health Workers

North America (U.S. and Canada)

CHWs get credit: a 10-year history of the first college-credit certificate for community health workers in the United States.

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Community health workers have become increasingly important in the U.S. health care system, playing a significant role in basic health promotion and care coordination; however, their status and visibility have not kept pace with their wider use. A major impediment has been the absence of systematic preparation-the field needs standardized education in programs that emphasize … [Read more...] about CHWs get credit: a 10-year history of the first college-credit certificate for community health workers in the United States.

Encouraging Vietnamese-American women to obtain Pap tests through lay health worker outreach and media education.

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Five times more Vietnamese-American women develop cervical cancer than white women. Few studies have examined whether community-based participatory research can effectively address Asian immigrants' health problems. This article reports the preliminary evaluation of 1 such project. At post-intervention, significantly more LHWO+ME women understood that human papillomavirus … [Read more...] about Encouraging Vietnamese-American women to obtain Pap tests through lay health worker outreach and media education.

The Healthy Connections project: a community-based participatory research project involving women at risk for diabetes and hypertension.

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The Healthy Connections (HC) project was a community health worker (CHW) intervention that built upon existing social networks to encourage African American and Latina women to obtain screening for type 2 diabetes and hypertension. This community-based participatory research (CBPR) project involved identifying and training CHWs, known as HC Advocates (HCAs). The HCAs … [Read more...] about The Healthy Connections project: a community-based participatory research project involving women at risk for diabetes and hypertension.

Community health workers: Expanding the scope of the health care delivery system

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Recent state experience suggests that states and Medicaid programs are increasingly using community health workers (CHW) to expand the health care safety net to reach underserved populations. CHWs do not provide clinical care or replace other health care providers. Instead, they complement services delivered through the more formal health care network “to provide more … [Read more...] about Community health workers: Expanding the scope of the health care delivery system