Abstract:
Community health workers (CHWs) enhance the fields of public health and medicine. They are known to improve trust and connection between institutions and communities that experience barriers to care. Meanwhile, most public institutions struggle to sufficiently reach all the communities they seek to support. This research investigates how community health workers contribute to their current projects and considers if and how the community health worker model can be applied to non-medical settings or fields other than medicine and public health. This research was completed in collaboration with Public Health – Seattle & King County’s Community Health Worker Asthma Program (CHW Asthma Program) and the Airport, Air Quality, and Asthma Research Study (AAA Study), a research project under the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. It investigated the roles of community health workers in the CHW Asthma Program and the AAA Study, where they are mediators, educators, and advocates of their clients. This research evaluated the AAA Study Protocol and suggests that community health workers strengthened the AAA Study by enhancing participants’ engagement and satisfaction and by providing insights as to how participants would interact with study materials. This research also conducted the CHW Roles Study, a qualitative analysis of the experiences of community health workers. It found that they are skilled professionals who make personal connections with their clients based on respect and autonomy. This analysis found that CHWs support clients with many resources and topics, including non-medical care, if they have access to training and resources. Additionally, CHWs can be better supported in their work with more stable funding, training and education, and access to mental health care. This research supports the importance of community health workers in public health and research. It also suggests that expanding the role of CHWs beyond these fields can help other institutions engage more meaningfully with their residents and constituents. Hiring community health workers or other liaisons can increase community engagement and public participation, improve trust, and support a shift toward more collaborative decision-making between institutions and the communities they seek to support.