COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are known by a variety of names. The CHWs section of the American Public Health Association describes CHWs as frontline public health workers who are trusted members of and/or have an unusually close understanding of the community served. The unique role of CHWs as culturally competent mediators (health brokers) between providers of health services and the members of diverse communities, as well as CHWs’ effectiveness in promoting the use of primary and follow-up care for preventing and managing disease, have been extensively documented and recognized for a variety of health care concerns, including hypertension and diabetes.