Integrating Community Health Workers ’ Dual Clinic-Community Role in Safety-Net Primary Care: Implementation Lessons from a Pragmatic Diabetes-Prevention Trial

ConclusionsCHWs ’ community knowledge can support patient engagement, but overextension of social assistance may detract from protocolized health-coaching goals. CHW programs in primary care should explicitly delineate CHWs’ non-health support to patients, include multiprofessional teams or partnerships with co mmunity-based organizations, establish formal communication between CHWs and clinicians, and institute mechanisms to review and iterate CHWs’ work to resolve challenges in their community-oriented role.
Source: Journal of General Internal Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Source Type: research