Community Health Worker Roles, Regulation and Growth in Rural America Grant uri icon

abstract

  • Growing bodies of research in public health point to Community Health Workers (CHWs) as vital figures in ensuring access to care in a cost-effective manner. By engaging with patients to bridge the gap between the public and needed services, CHWs are positioned to help enhance patient knowledge and improve individual responsibility for care. Critically, the number of CHWs working throughout the U.S. has increased dramatically in recent years. Understanding this growth and its impact on our health system is an important area of inquiry. Our research worked to work to understand the impact that the growing number of CHWs nationwide has had on healthcare in the U.S. Through a series of focus groups in rural and urban environments nationwide, we better understand the variety of roles that CHWs play, the ways in which they help individuals access care, and their recommendations for improving patient engagement and responsibility. We were particularly interested in how these factors varied across rural and urban environments. In addition, we took what we learned from these focus groups and developed a survey on health access to be administered to CHWs nationwide. Through this survey and the focus groups, we gained important insight into the varied roles of CHWs in health access in rural and urban environments across the U.S. Furthermore, we used a legal analysis to study the growing regulatory frameworks states are developing that relate to CHWs and the relationship between these regulations and the increasing numbers of CHWs in states across the country. Some states have established regulations related to CHW infrastructure, professional identity, workforce development, and financing. We investigated how states have differentially treated each of these regulatory components and how this relates to trends in CHW employment. In particular, we analyzed this relationship across metropolitan and non- metropolitan areas. Publications Community Health Worker Roles and Responsibilities in Rural and Urban America Policy Brief Southwest Rural Health Research Center Date: 11/2019 The primary aim of this study was to understand the evolving profession of community health workers (CHWs) in the U.S. Through focus groups in rural and urban regions of four states, we explored CHW roles and responsibilities, the growing professionalization of the field, and evolving interactions between CHWs and other care providers.

date/time interval

  • 2018 - 2019