TY - JOUR
T1 - A community health worker intervention to address the social determinants of health through policy change
AU - Ingram, Maia
AU - Schachter, Ken A.
AU - Sabo, Samantha J.
AU - Reinschmidt, Kerstin M.
AU - Gomez, Sofia
AU - De Zapien, Jill Guernsey
AU - Carvajal, Scott C.
PY - 2014/4
Y1 - 2014/4
N2 - Public policy that seeks to achieve sustainable improvements in the social determinants of health, such as income, education, housing, food security and neighborhood conditions, can create positive and sustainable health effects. This paper describes preliminary results of Accion para la Salud, a public health intervention in which Community health workers (CHWs) from five health agencies engaged their community in the process of making positive systems and environmental changes. Academic-community partners trained Acción CHWs in community advocacy and provided ongoing technical assistance in developing strategic advocacy plans. The CHWs documented community advocacy activities through encounter forms in which they identified problems, formulated solutions, and described systems and policy change efforts. Strategy maps described the steps of the advocacy plans. Findings demonstrate that CHWs worked to initiate discussions about underlying social determinants and environment-related factors that impact health, and identified solutions to improve neighborhood conditions, create community opportunities, and increase access to services.
AB - Public policy that seeks to achieve sustainable improvements in the social determinants of health, such as income, education, housing, food security and neighborhood conditions, can create positive and sustainable health effects. This paper describes preliminary results of Accion para la Salud, a public health intervention in which Community health workers (CHWs) from five health agencies engaged their community in the process of making positive systems and environmental changes. Academic-community partners trained Acción CHWs in community advocacy and provided ongoing technical assistance in developing strategic advocacy plans. The CHWs documented community advocacy activities through encounter forms in which they identified problems, formulated solutions, and described systems and policy change efforts. Strategy maps described the steps of the advocacy plans. Findings demonstrate that CHWs worked to initiate discussions about underlying social determinants and environment-related factors that impact health, and identified solutions to improve neighborhood conditions, create community opportunities, and increase access to services.
KW - Community advocacy
KW - Community engagement
KW - Community health workers
KW - Community-based participatory research
KW - Social determinants
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U2 - 10.1007/s10935-013-0335-y
DO - 10.1007/s10935-013-0335-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 24363179
AN - SCOPUS:84898931330
SN - 0278-095X
VL - 35
SP - 119
EP - 123
JO - Journal of Primary Prevention
JF - Journal of Primary Prevention
IS - 2
ER -