Improving Hypertension _ Diabetes Control and Prevention
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cdc toolkit offers guidance and educational resources to support inclusion of community health workers on the care team 

e-toolkit According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a community health worker (CHW) is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member or has a particularly good understanding of the community served. A CHW serves as a liaison between health and social services and the community to facilitate access to services and to improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.Community health workers (CHWs) are trained public health workers who serve as a bridge between communities, health care systems, and state health departments.

Review the Community Health Worker Toolkit from the CDC to access a host of online courses, lessons learned, and best practices to help state health departments train and further build capacity for CHWs in their communities. The toolkit also contains training and education materials for CHWs to use within their communities.
download this cdc checklist for including community health workers in a healthcare setting

CHW checklist The Including Community Health Care Workers in a Healthcare Setting checklist from the CDC presents a general framework for public health practitioners to lead or assist in including CHWs and integrating the CHW scope of practice in health care settings. This is reflected in four phases: 
  1. Planning
  2. Implementation
  3. Evaluation
  4. Sustainability
It is designed to be a conversation facilitator and nonprescriptive tool to help to establish and strengthen relationships between CHWs and health care providers, as well as provide direction for public health practitioners. 
study finds that engaging community health workers in heart  disease prevention interventions makes an impact

community The  Community Preventive Services Task Force announced that it recommends interventions engage CHWs in a team-based care model to improve blood pressure and cholesterol in patients at increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). This finding supports interventions that engage community health workers for health education, outreach, enrollment, and information agents to increase self-reported health behaviors (e.g., physical activity, healthful eating habits, smoking cessation) in patients at increased risk for CVD.
As you may already know, heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, and about half of all American adults have one at least one key risk factor for heart disease and stroke. The Task Force's findings, based on a systematic review of the evidence, support engaging community health workers to improve risk factors for CVD. A small number of studies suggest that engaging CHWs improves appropriate use of healthcare services and reduces morbidity and mortality related to CVD.
Quality Insights welcome you to share this information, as well as the below resources, with others who can use this finding to reduce CVD risk, including healthcare organizations, communities, insurers, state health departments, public health professionals, and clinicians.
contact information

For more details about the Improving Hypertension and Diabetes Care & Prevention project, please contact Ashley Biscardi, Sarah Toborowski, Ryan Williamson, and Danielle Nugent.
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This publication was supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number NU58DP2018006563 from the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Publication number: DEDPH-HD-082319