Community Health Workers as Puentes/Bridges to Increase COVID-19 Health Equity in Latinx Communities of the Southwest U.S.

Abstract

This study documents the pivotal role that Community Health Workers (CHW) played while supporting underserved Latinx communities affected by COVID-19-related health inequities. With the support of CHWs’ agencies historically serving three Latinx-dense counties in Arizona, we recruited CHWs who participated in a state-wide COVID-19 testing project. Using phenomenology and narrative qualitative research methods, five focus groups were facilitated in Spanish between August and November 2021. Bilingual research team members conducted the analysis of the Spanish verbatim transcripts and CHWs reviewed the results for validity. Three interconnected themes reflected the CHWs experiences: (1) CHWs as puentes /bridges with deep community embeddedness through shared experiences and social/cultural context, (2) CHWs as communication brokers and transformational agents, playing a pivotal role in responding to the health and socioeconomic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, (3) CHWs satisfaction and frustration due to their dual role as committed community members but unrecognized and undervalued frontline public health workers. These findings emphasize the CHWs’ commitment towards supporting their communities, even amidst the stressors of the pandemic. It is important to continue to integrate the role of CHWs into the larger healthcare system as opposed to relegating them to short term engagements as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article provides a set of practice, policy, and future research recommendations, emphasizing the need to allocate greater budgetary and training resources in support of CHWs.

Community health worker perspectives on advocacy: design-based research to develop a digital advocacy training course

“…Research on advocacy has indicated that one of the primary pre-conditions for advocacy or movement development is that certain members of society identify as a collective group that feels they have been deprived, mistreated, and have grievances directed at a system that they perceive as unjust ( 33–35 ). While CHWs in multiple countries express individual grievances with their working conditions and the public health conditions of their communities ( 1 , 11–13 , 18 , 36 ), there is less research on how CHWs identify that they share common grievances or experiences with other CHWs based on their collective role as CHWs ( 37 , 38 ). Thus, the module aims to expose CHWs to the history and background of CHW programs worldwide, explain the unique role that CHWs play in achieving universal health care globally, and share ideas for making professional CHWs a norm worldwide.…”

Improving communication strategies for vulnerable populations during health crises: Learnings from COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices study in an informal settlement in Mumbai, India

“…Some studies have also cautioned about the misuse of social media such as the spread of misinformation, bias and fear [8][9][10]. Other studies have highlighted the importance of inter-personal communication (IPC) through trusted sources such as doctors [11], and through community-based support systems [12,13] such as non-governmental organizations and health workers [14,15]. Due to multiple communication sources and a diverse media environment [16], health communication strategies were faced with the challenge of managing both the pandemic as well as an 'infodemic' [17,18] characterised by overload of information from various sources often contradictory and incorrect [19].…”