Caring for Community Health Workers to Promote Community Engagement in Research

Purpose

CHWs often face institutional and external barriers, such as long shifts, low wages, and insufficient staffing, that limit their ability to work effectively. Addressing high emotional and physical demands on CHWs is essential to supporting their well-being and sustaining their long-term contributions to health care and community health.

Call to Action

To sustain the essential contributions of CHWs, we must work together to advocate for CHWs’ well-being across individual, workplace, institutional, and policy levels. This means fostering open conversations about self-care, building healthier and more respectful work environments, and supporting community-driven solutions.

Recommendations

Recognize that CHW well-being exists at different levels of intervention.

Promote meaningful change by implementing coordinated wellness interventions across levels that are flexible, accessible, and varied. Ensure CHWs are fully supported at the individual (e.g., stress and wellness management workshops, mentoring), interpersonal (e.g., team-building activities, peer support systems), and institutional levels (e.g., participatory approaches to work design, new initiatives to promote collaboration) so they can meaningfully engage in research. 

• Reflection Question: If you manage or contract with CHWs, what can you advocate for at your workplace to encourage CHW well-being at different levels of intervention?

  Consider how you maintain your own well-being and mindfulness throughout the workweek so you can think about applying some of those practices to support CHWs. 

Attend and participate in CHW advocacy meetings and groups.

Participate in CHW meetings and groups, and be a trusted ally to strengthen interventions that promote CHW mental, physical, and social health in the workplace. Encourage CHWs to invite administrators and leadership who align with their purpose, and suggest a clearly written invitation for the specific meeting they would like them to attend.

• Reflection Question: How can you and your workplace leaders be encouraged to attend and participate in CHW advocacy meetings and groups?

  Identify leaders who can participate in meetings to support trust and transparency, translate insights into meaningful action, and provide informed guidance on current regulations and potential changes.

Recognize the mental, emotional, and physical labor required of CHWs.

CHWs bridge the gap between health systems and communities and often have deep personal connections with the communities they serve, providing them with a unique perspective to advocate for their communities and engage them in research. However, they may deal with institutional barriers to their well-being that directly limit their ability to perform their roles effectively.

• Reflection Question: How important is it to have proper recognition, compensation, and work–life balance in your role?

  Identify what helps you feel valued, supported, and able to sustain yourself in your work, as well as what changes could strengthen your overall job satisfaction, so you can think about applying some of those concepts in supporting CHWs.

Engage in consistent feedback loops and conversations.

Initiate and participate in conversations that challenge dominant narratives to continue to create effective change. As the needs and priorities of CHWs change and evolve over time, the workplace should conduct consistent feedback loops. Create and reinforce a workplace culture in which CHWs feel comfortable respectfully challenging ideas and assumptions.

• Reflection Question: How could you structure ongoing conversations to improve CHW well-being in the workplace?

  Think about conversations where you genuinely felt heard and understood, as well as conversations where you felt dismissed and invisible, so you can apply those examples to support CHWs.

Key Terms

Community health workers (CHWs): Trusted frontline workers who help educate, connect to care, support healthy behaviors, and advocate for health needs (NCDHHS, NHLBI).

Institutional barriers: Systems like policies, laws, and procedures that unfairly block or disadvantage certain groups in accessing resources or achieving their goals (CBM*).

This resource was adapted by CEACR from the CEACR Speaker Series, which brings together experts from academic, clinical, and community-based settings to lead discussions focused on representation in research. The development of this resource was funded by NIH CEAL under contract number OT2HL158287. The opinions expressed are those of CEACR and do not represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, the NIH, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or the U.S. Government.

Requests for CEACR services can be made at https://redcap.link/consultrequest*