Community health workers (CHWs) can help to achieve the goals of the Affordable Care Act—better health, better care, and lower costs. CHWs are typically laypeople whose close connections with a community enable them to win trust and improve health and health services for those they serve. However, challenges with financing structures, workforce training, and service … [Read more...] about Integrating Community Health Workers into a Reformed Health Care System
Case studies
Diabetes is a Community Issue: The Critical Elements of a Successful Outreach and Education Model on the U.S.-Mexico Border
Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions on the U.S.-Mexico Border, and culturally competent diabetes education is not available in many communities. People with diabetes often do not have access to regular medical care, cannot afford medication, and lack the community infrastructure that supports self-management practices. Self-management education and support have great … [Read more...] about Diabetes is a Community Issue: The Critical Elements of a Successful Outreach and Education Model on the U.S.-Mexico Border
Impact of dropout of female volunteer community health workers: an exploration in Dhaka urban slums.
The model of volunteer community health workers (CHWs) is a common approach to serving the poor communities in developing countries. BRAC, a large NGO in Bangladesh, is a pioneer in this area, has been using female CHWs as core workers in its community-based health programs since 1977. After 25 years of implementing of the CHW model in rural areas, BRAC has begun using female … [Read more...] about Impact of dropout of female volunteer community health workers: an exploration in Dhaka urban slums.
5-SPICE: the application of an original framework for community health worker program design, quality improvement and research agenda setting
Despite decades of experience with community health workers (CHWs) in a wide variety of global health projects, there is no established conceptual framework that structures how implementers and researchers can understand, study and improve their respective programs based on lessons learned by other CHW programs. Engaging a large group of implementers, researchers and the … [Read more...] about 5-SPICE: the application of an original framework for community health worker program design, quality improvement and research agenda setting
Integrated Community Case Management: Findings from Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Malawi
To generate key lessons, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Malawi have conducted assessments of their programs related to community case management (CCM) of childhood illness programs. The CCM programs in all three countries included the treatment of three major childhood illnesses by community health workers: diarrheal disease, malaria and pneumonia. For this … [Read more...] about Integrated Community Case Management: Findings from Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Malawi
