The Crucial – and Overlooked – Roles of Community Health Workers

In the United States’ ongoing effort to reduce health care disparities, community health workers are an underutilized and valuable resource. As health care companies, nonprofit organizations and government agencies work to expand access to care, it is important to understand how these professionals can help our communities.

Community health workers are front-line public health workers who are trusted members of or deeply understand the communities they serve. These dedicated individuals receive specific training on how to improve connections between historically marginalized communities and the health care system.

In the U.S., community health workers provide a range of important services in many different settings. They may provide first aid, distribute educational materials, make home visits or accompany patients on trips to medical providers. They also can serve as “cultural brokers,” helping with language barriers and other impediments to quality care. They can work in hospitals, primary care clinics and public health departments, as well as on campuses or within local community organizations.

Though community health workers are certified by formal training, there are no traditional degree requirements, opening jobs for people with varying educational backgrounds and giving them an opportunity to make a huge impact.

Community health worker Andrea Barstow recently completed training at Meharry Medical College, a historically Black medical school in Nashville, Tennessee, that trains health workers to address mental and cardiovascular health disparities in their home communities across the state.

Barstow became a community health worker because she wanted to help her brother, who was experiencing mental health issues.

“As I helped him by seeking out mental health resources, I started to share the information with others. The more I shared, the more I ended up at community events,” she says. “It was then I decided that becoming a community health worker was what I wanted to do.”

The program at Meharry Medical College encompasses areas such as motivational interviewing, chronic disease screening and CPR, for which community health workers can earn certificates. With the knowledge and skills gained through evidence-based training, community health workers can provide critical resources and services to historically underresourced communities, which often align demographically with members of this critical workforce.

According to a survey from the National Association of Community Health Workers in 2021, 31.7% of community health workers identified as African American/Black, 37.7% identified as Hispanic and 11.1% identified as multiracial or other. These communities can experience worse health outcomes due to challenges accessing care; unmet health-related social needs like transportation, food or housing; and the explicit and implicit biases of providers of different backgrounds. Community health workers can bridge these gaps and help improve health outcomes by assisting patients in navigating the health care system, building trust and helping patients get connected to social services that address their needs.

By leveraging this group of individuals, health care professionals are focusing on the strengths and resources already within communities – namely, its people – to bolster care and build a crucial continuum within the health care system.

As health care organizations and medical schools continue to focus on expanding community health worker programs, our hope is that more individuals and families across the country will experience their impact firsthand.

Meharry Medical College is a member of CVS Health’s Community Equity Alliance, which brings academic and health care institutions together to help expand the community health worker workforce and address health inequities in heart health and mental health.