There is a growing movement among health care organizations to adopt the Community Health Worker (CHW) model into their system as a way to provide comprehensive care to patients and community members. At the same time there is uncertainty about how to implement the CHW model to achieve better patient outcomes, higher quality of care, and lower health care … [Read more...] about Best Practice Guidelines for Implementing and Evaluating Community Health Worker Programs in Health Care Settings
Human Resources Management/Workforce Development
Teaching how, not what: the contributions of community health workers to diabetes self-management.
The purpose of this study is to describe ways in which community health workers (CHWs) are used in various clinic and community settings to support diabetes self-management (DSM). The assistance CHWs reported providing was most often in form of encouragement/motivation. During interviews, patients shared that CHWs were helpful in demonstrating how to incorporate DSM into their … [Read more...] about Teaching how, not what: the contributions of community health workers to diabetes self-management.
Measuring return on investment of outreach by community health workers.
Community health workers (CHWs) are effective in improving access to health care, promoting client knowledge and behavior change, and contributing to improved health status of individuals. However, few outreach programs have evaluated the financial impact of CHWs on health care systems and policies. A longitudinal repeated measures design was used to assess the return on … [Read more...] about Measuring return on investment of outreach by community health workers.
How to make the most of village health promoters.
In a rural area of Bangladesh the methods used by village health promoters and the time available to them for their intended tasks were inadequate. Poverty and illiteracy in the community exacerbated their difficulties. Ways of tackling these problems are discussed in the article. … [Read more...] about How to make the most of village health promoters.
Community health workers: a front line for primary care?
Among the potential changes invoked in discussions on health system transformation, a need to revitalize primary care remains paramount. One way of doing this, most agree, is to move more in the direction of team-based care. Professionals such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners may be able to ease some of the physician's clinical care load, but some populations … [Read more...] about Community health workers: a front line for primary care?
