title: Community health workers: who they are and what they do.
abstract: Community health workers (CHWs) are community members who serve as frontline health care professionals. They generally work with the underserved and are indigenous to the community in which they work-ethnically, linguistically, socioeconomically, and experientially. This article presents the results of a survey of 197 systematically selected health care providers in eight Bay Area counties. The authors found that 25% of the health care providers in these eight counties hire CHWs. The hiring projections indicate that opportunities are expanding for these frontline professionals; the majority of growth is in public health departments and community-based organizations. The majority of CHWs are women (66%) of color (77%) with a high school degree or less (58%). A total of 44% earn an annual salary of $20,00 to $25,000; 30% make more than $25,001. AIDS and maternal and child health are the two major content foci of CHW work.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education at San Francisco State University, CA 94132, USA. love@sfsu.edu
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Love
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Legion
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003150:Community Health Workers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male