Successes and Lessons Learned From Implementing Community Health Worker Programs in Community-Based and Clinical Settings: Insights From the Gulf Coast

摘要

As frontline public health workers, community health workers (CHWs) fulfill diverse functions within health systems and community-based organizations. They offer culturally appropriate health information and outreach, provide health screenings and other direct services, coordinate care, assist with access to health insurance, build individual and community capacity, and offer social support and informal counseling.1"3 CHWs, also known as promotores de salud, lay health workers, and peer health advocates, typically come from the same cultural and/or linguistic background and have similar lived experiences as their clients.4 They are employed in a variety of health care settings (eg, ambulatory and primary care clinics, hospitals, faith-based health