What is the specialized function of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in California?
Acting as trusted liaisons to provide health education and assistance navigating social services.
Community Health Workers serve a vital ground-level function by acting as essential bridges connecting official health agencies directly with the populations they aim to serve. In contexts like California, CHWs are often trusted members of the communities they represent. Their primary activities involve providing tailored health education, offering informal counseling support regarding health behaviors, and actively assisting individuals in navigating complex social services systems. Crucially, they adapt health information delivery to align with the specific cultural context or linguistic needs of their neighbors, ensuring that essential care and understanding can be accessed effectively where external experts might fail due to a lack of shared lived experience.
