Community Health Work and Social Work Collaboration: Integration in Health Care and Public Health Settings

Abstract

Community health worker (CHW) and social worker (SW) collaboration is crucial to illness prevention and intervention, yet systems often engage the 2 workforces in silos and miss opportunities for cross-sector alignment. In 2021, a national workgroup of over 2 dozen CHWs, SWs, and public health experts convened to improve CHW/SW collaboration and integration across the United States. The workgroup developed a conceptual framework that describes structural, systemic, and organizational factors that influence CHW/SW collaboration. Best practices include standardized training, delineated roles and scopes of practice, clear workflows, regular communication, a shared system for documentation, and ongoing support or supervision.