Community Health Workers and Their Value to Social Work (Report)

The use of community health workers (CHWs) as social justice and health advocates has a long and upstanding history both internationally and domestically in disenfranchised communities and in the public health, nursing, and biomedical literature (for example, Eng & Young, 1992; Israel, 1985; Lewin et al., 2005; Navarro et al., 1998; Norris et al., 2006; Swider, 2002;Two Feathers et al., 2005; Witmer, Seifer, Funocchio, Leslie, & O'Neil, 1995). CHWs have become vital to linking underserved populations to health and social service systems. Indeed, national priorities focused on eliminating health disparities, such as Healthy People 2010, call for innovative and effective approaches that address social determinants of health, with CHW interventions emerging as a promising approach in health care settings .Their value and potential role in the social work practice and research literature has been largely absent. Yet social workers and CHWs share a common value base of social justice; client and community empowerment; and commitment to culturally appropriate, effective, and sustained change. Thus, the purpose of this integrative review is to discuss the role of CHWs in promoting social justice and their utility in enhancing the work of social workers in community settings. CHWs go by many names, including lay health advocates, promotores(as) de salud, family health advocates, community health advisors, outreach educators, peer health promoters, peer health educators, community health representatives in Native American Nations, and natural helpers, to name a few. Although there are various definitions of what a CHW is, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions (HHS, HRSA, BHP, 2007) defined CHWs as