Are community health agents the link to integrating care? Lesson from Brazil

Are community health agents the link to integrating care? Lesson from Brazil Larissa Veríssimo, Helen Rainey, Roberta Lindemann, Anne Hendry Journal of Integrated Care, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- This viewpoint piece will highlight the contribution of trained lay community health workers to the integrated workforce in rural, remote and island settings, drawing on experience from a system strengthening project involving community health agents (CHAs) in four municipalities in Litoral Norte, a remote coastal and island region in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. This viewpoint reflects on experiential learning from a unique north–south collaboration that spanned the period of a global pandemic. It adds to the international literature on the value of community health workers in public health and chronic disease management and highlights their potential pivotal role as integrators at point of care. CHAs took forward actions that touched the lives of thousands of vulnerable families with low income and complex needs in communities with high levels of social and health inequalities. They acted as a bridge between patients and families at home, primary healthcare professionals and wider community partners and services. Their valuable insight into the healthcare issues and social challenges experienced by the community informed and supported family centred practice and population health goals. The CHAs rapidly pivoted to became an essential public health workforc...
Source: Journal of Integrated Care - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: research