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With some questionable health advice being posted by your friends on Facebook, politicians arguing about the state of the American healthcare system and a new medical study being summarized in just a sentence or two on TV---that seems to contradict the study you heard summarized yesterday---it can be overwhelming to navigate the ever-changing landscape of health news.

Community Health Workers Serve as Link Between Patients and Services

The American Public Health Association defines Community Health Workers as frontline public health workers who are  trusted members of, or have an unusually close understanding of, the community served. This trusting relationship enables the workers to serve as links between health services, social services and the community, which  facilitates access and improves the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.

Hello, I’m Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs, Director of Health Communication at Southeast Missouri State University...and now, also, a Certified Community Health Worker.

Tim Berthold describes the international origins of this type of work in his text, Foundations for Community Health Workers. Feldshers in Russia, “barefoot doctors” in China and promotores de salud throughout Latin America led the World Health Organization to say that “village health workers” were the best strategy for achieving community participation in health. 

A 2017 study in The American Journal of Public Health found a standardized Community Health Worker intervention improved chronic disease control, mental health, quality of care, and hospitalizations and could be a useful population health management tool for health care systems. However, one of the most crucial aspects of what Community Health Workers do is bring humanity and advocacy to our healthcare model. 

Dr. Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs is an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership, Middle & Secondary Education. She writes for special publications of The Southeast Missourian and is a certified Community Health Worker.
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