In the past decade, the community health worker (CHW) profession in the United States has increased its visibility, but its potential contributions remain underappreciated and more permanent financing is elusive. This paper describes the current state of knowledge about how and where CHWs can contribute effectively, where barriers inhibit efficient deployment of CHWs, and what … [Read more...] about The Evolution, Expansion, and Effectiveness of Community Health Workers
Sustainability
Program planners’ perspectives of promotora roles, recruitment, and selection.
Program planners work with promotoras (the Spanish term for female community health workers) to reduce health disparities among underserved populations. Based on the Role-Outcomes Linkage Evaluation Model for Community Health Workers (ROLES) conceptual model, we explored how program planners conceptualized the promotora role and the approaches and strategies they used to … [Read more...] about Program planners’ perspectives of promotora roles, recruitment, and selection.
Transforming the delivery of care in the post-health reform era: what role will community health workers play?
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) affords opportunities to sustain the role of community health workers (CHWs). Among myriad strategies encouraged by PPACA are prevention and care coordination, particularly for chronic diseases, chief drivers of increased health care costs. Prevention and care coordination are functions that have been performed by CHWs for … [Read more...] about Transforming the delivery of care in the post-health reform era: what role will community health workers play?
Sources of community health worker motivation: a qualitative study in Morogoro Region, Tanzania.
There is a renewed interest in community health workers (CHWs) in Tanzania, but also a concern that low motivation of CHWs may decrease the benefits of investments in CHW programs. This study aimed to explore sources of CHW motivation to inform programs in Tanzania and similar contexts. Sources of CHW motivation were identified at the individual, family, community, and … [Read more...] about Sources of community health worker motivation: a qualitative study in Morogoro Region, Tanzania.
Community health workers support community-based participatory research ethics: lessons learned along the research-to-practice-to-community continuum.
Ethical principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR)--specifically, community engagement, mutual learning, action-reflection, and commitment to sustainability--are particularly relevant in cancer disparities research because vulnerable populations are often construed to be powerless, supposedly benefiting from programs over which they have no control. The long … [Read more...] about Community health workers support community-based participatory research ethics: lessons learned along the research-to-practice-to-community continuum.