Community health workers: A key workforce to promote health equity for children in immigrant families

In the United States, children in immigrant families and their caregivers must often navigate complex, inefficient, and exclusionary health and social service systems to access necessary health care and public health services. Government benefit programs for children in immigrant families are often poorly designed and fragmented, with complex enrollment paperwork and eligibility rules that are difficult to interpret. Immigrant children may also face xenophobia and discrimination in health care and educational settings, and their families may have limited local financial and social supports to help them navigate these challenges. Collectively, these factors can generate and perpetuate inequities in child health outcomes.

Community health workers (CHWs) are trustworthy individuals who come from the communities they serve and often share a background, demographic characteristics, and lived experiences with patients and families. CHW programs have been shown to improve families’ ability to navigate the health care system, communication with medical teams, and satisfaction with medical care. These programs can also improve chronic disease management and reduce acute care utilization for both children and adults with chronic conditions. Because CHWs work at the intersection of health systems and the surrounding communities, they are an ideal workforce for supporting immigrant families. CHWs can provide culturally and linguistically concordant health education, patient navigation, social support, assistance connecting with benefit programs and community resources, and individual and community-level advocacy.