Community Health Workers

Promote health within a community by assisting individuals to adopt healthy behaviors. Serve as an advocate for the health needs of individuals by assisting community residents in effectively communicating with healthcare providers or social service agencies. Act as liaison or advocate and implement programs that promote, maintain, and improve individual and overall community health. May deliver health-related preventive services such as blood pressure, glaucoma, and hearing screenings. May collect data to help identify community health needs.

Community health workers promote wellness by helping people adopt healthy behaviors. They implement programs and advocate for people who may have limited access to health resources and social services. Often employed by community-based organizations and public health departments, community health workers link people to health care services. But perhaps more importantly, they connect people to resources that can help meet their basic social health needs. These unmet social health needs, like lack of food, stable housing, and reliable transportation, often lead to poor health outcomes for people and their families. By doing this connecting work across health care systems, public health departments, and community-based organizations, community health workers ensure that patients are getting the most comprehensive care and support possible. Even more importantly, community health workers are front-line health workers who are trusted sources of information and guidance in their communities. They often share ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, and life experiences with the community members they serve. These connections help community health workers bridge a gap otherwise filled by friend or family caregivers who may lack the time, training, or resources needed to care for their loved ones the ways they wish they could.

Community health workers may spend part of their day in an office for activities such as recordkeeping and writing reports. However, they spend much of their time in the field to interact with community members, hold events, and collect data. They may travel to a variety of settings, including homes or medical facilities, to meet with clients.

Community health workers often collaborate with healthcare and social service providers as part of an interdisciplinary team. Most community health workers are employed full time. They may need to work evenings and weekends to attend community events, programs, or meetings.

Community health workers promote wellness by helping people adopt healthy behaviors. They implement programs and advocate for people who may have limited access to health resources and social services.

Community health workers act as intermediaries between their clients and providers of healthcare and social services. They identify health-related issues, collect data, and discuss clients’ health concerns within the community. For example, community health workers might identify barriers preventing clients from access to transportation and provide referrals to resources that provide it.

Ideally, these workers have close ties to the communities they serve so that they understand their clients’ unique needs. They share that information with providers of healthcare and social services for determining appropriate programs and care. They also advocate for community wellness needs and conduct outreach to engage clients, assist with navigating healthcare, and improve coordination of care.

Community health workers may have different titles, depending on the population they serve. For example, community health representatives increase health knowledge and access to care for Tribal communities. Promotores de la salud reduce barriers to healthcare and social services in Spanish-speaking communities. Peer support specialists have experienced a mental health or substance use disorder and are in recovery while providing support to others experiencing similar challenges.

Community health workers work closely with other healthcare and social service providers, including registered nurses, social workers, and substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors.