Policy Evidence Assessment Report: Community Health Worker Policy Components

Authors: Carl Rush

Policy Evidence Assessment Reports summarize the evidence bases for components of chronic disease policy. Evidence based policy can be used to prevent, control, and improve the outcomes of chronic disease, but the strength of the evidence for many components of policy is unknown. The Policy Evidence Assessment Reports are intended to inform researchers, evaluators, and practitioners about the strengths and limitations of the evidence bases for individual components of chronic disease policy interventions. These reports can be used during consideration of policy options to improve chronic disease outcomes, as well as to understand how enacted state laws incorporate evidence-based policy. A community health worker (CHW) is a frontline public health worker who is a member of the community served and improves the quality and cultural competence of service delivery. A CHW policy intervention, such as a state law, supports the role of the CHW. We identified 14 CHW policy components to assess in this report. Many of these components are elements of successful CHW programs, which have implications for policy development, and some of these components can be found in state law.