Promotores de Salud/Community Health Workers (CHWs) are volunteer community members and paid frontline public health workers who are trusted members of and/or have an unusually close understanding of the community served. Promotores de Salud/Community Health Workers (CHWs) generally share the ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, and life experiences of the community members they serve. These social attributes and trusting relationships enable CHWs to serve as a liaison, link, or intermediary between health and social services and the community to facilitate access to and enrollment in services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service. Promotores/CHWs can enhance provider-patient communication; preventive care; adherence to treatment, follow-up, and referral; disease self-management; and navigation of the healthcare system. Additionally Promotores/CHWs build individual and community capacity by increasing health knowledge and self-sufficiency through a range of activities such as outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support, and advocacy among communities such as Hispanic/Latino communities.*
*Adapted from the American Public Health Association, 2009, Community Health Workers National Workforce Study (HRSA) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
- Community Health Workers Section, American Public Health Association. Available at
http://www.apha.org/membergroups/sections/aphasections/chw 
.
- Community Health Workers National Workforce Study (HRSA)
http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/reports/chwstudy2007.pdf [PDF | 1.1MB]
- The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, PL. 111-148, sec 5101, 5102, 5313, 5403, and 3509. [PDF | 5.4MB]
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