health policy
Supervision of Community Health Workers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Huyen Vu, MPH
Community health workers (CHWs) serve an increasingly important role as intermediary between patients and health services. In low-income and middle-income countries, where healthcare systems often face resource shortages, CHWs find themselves taking on a wide range of tasks and responsibilities. In these settings, providing strong supervision for CHWs is vital to ensuring consistent quality of care.
Studies suggest that effective supervision of CHWs can motivate them, create a sense of legitimacy for both CHWs and the community they serve, identify and correct poor CHW practices, and help resolve challenges unique to CHWs (Jenkins R et al., 2013; Ledikwe J et al., 2013). In practice, however, the quality of CHW supervision is highly variable due to lack of skills and tools, limited transportation resources, financial obstacles, and cultural factors in the local health systems.
In an effort to help improve the quality of CHW supervision, Zelee Hill and her…
My Reflections from ADA 2014
Sarah Kowitt, MPH
Two weeks ago marked my second trip to the annual American Diabetes Association conference. Held in San Francisco, the conference brought together experts from around the world to tackle the most pressing issues in diabetes care and research. As a PhD student in Health Behavior, here are my takeaways from the sessions.
Meeting People from Around the World
The ADA conference was attended by approximately 17,300 people from more than 121 countries. Anecdotally, I heard that 40% of the attendees came from outside the United States. With a “World Cup Lounge” set up on the second floor where participants could watch live football matches, this was not hard to believe.
While presenting my poster on emotional support for patients with type 2 diabetes, I struck up conversations with a researcher from Montreal, a health educator from Orlando, a doctor from Nigeria, a diabetologist from Denmark, and a nurse practitioner from China. I also participated in…
Bridging the Gap between Cultural Communities and Health Providers
Our colleagues at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law posted this blog on our recent meeting in San Francisco.
In it they share two resources they developed for the meeting:
The first paper, Affordable Care Act (ACA) Opportunities for Community Health Workers, generally explores the policy and legal framework underlying the ACA, which increases the role of CHWs within the US healthcare system.
The second paper, Community Health Worker Credentialing, more specifically discusses different state approaches to recognizing and reimbursing their CHWs through both public and private insurance.
Please visit their site to read the full article.
