Browsing: community health workers

Health Equity
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Community Health Workers — An Essential Workforce For Achieving Health Equity

BY DR. RAINE ARNDT-COUCH, DSW, JD, LCSW, CCM
Health equity is a fundamental goal in healthcare, aiming to ensure that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. Community health workers (CHWs) play a crucial role in achieving this goal, by leveraging their unique skills and lived experience to bridge healthcare delivery gaps and address the social determinants of health. This article explores the role and value of CHWs, the current policy landscape underlying the provision of CHW services and offers practical actions case managers and others in the healthcare continuum can take to ensure CHWs are included in comprehensive strategies to achieve health equity.

Collaborative Care
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Leveraging Community Health Workers within an Interdisciplinary Care Team to Care For Older Adults

BY LAUREN O’CONNELL, LICSW, AND ROBERTA CAPP, MD, MHS
Community health workers (CHWs) are non-clinical members of the community who usually share ethnicity, language and life experiences with the community members they serve (NIHLBI, 2023). Traditionally, CHWs are social and change agents; they reduce disparities and inequities by expanding knowledge and access to benefits and community services.