Community Health Worker ECHO

What is a Community Health Worker? 

What is a Community Health Worker (CHW)? There are many people in and out of the health care field that may not know what the CHW profession actually entails. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) describes a CHW as “lay members of the community who work either for pay or as volunteers in association with the local health care system in both urban and rural environments. CHWs usually share ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, and life experiences with the community members they serve.” They have been identified by many titles, such as community health advisors, lay health advocates, outreach educators, community health representatives, peer health promoters, and peer health educators. CHWs offer interpretation and translation services, provide culturally appropriate health education and information, help people get the care they need, give informal counseling and guidance on health behaviors, advocate for individual and community health needs, and provide some direct services such as helping a patient obtain housing, benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid services, employment and disability, just to name a few. Most importantly, they advocate for the patient. CHWs are frontline agents of change, helping to reduce health disparities in underserved communities. CHWS take a holistic approach to each patient they serve.