'I am Who I Serve'--Community Health Workers in Family Planning Programs

For decades, family planning programs and other public health programs have utilized community health workers (CHWs) as a way to reach and serve disadvantaged populations, often immigrants leery of government-sponsored programs. CHWs--who are generally lay members of the same communities these programs are seeking to serve--provide a variety of functions, including outreach, counseling and education, and patient navigation. Despite decades of experience, however, and a substantial body of evidence documenting their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, these efforts continue to be hampered by the lack of a dedicated funding stream--a problem now being addressed by individual states and potentially by a little-noticed provision in the federal health care reform legislation that could provide at least some funding nationwide. Shared Roots