Community health workers

Community health workers provide health education, referral and follow up, case management, and basic preventive health care and home visiting services to specific communities. They provide support and assistance to individuals and families in navigating the health and social services system.

Job Responsibilities

• Providing information to families and communities on a range of health issues including nutrition, hygiene, infant and child care, immunizations, family planning, risk factors and prevention of common infectious diseases, poisoning prevention, first aid for treatment of simple and common ailments, substance abuse, domestic violence, and other topics
• Visiting families in their homes to provide information on the health, social and other services available and support them in gaining access to these services
• Visiting families who do not usually access medical establishments to monitor on a regular basis certain conditions, such as progress with pregnancy, child growth and development, and environmental sanitation
• Distributing to households medical supplies for the prevention and treatment of endemic diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases, and instructing family and community members in the use of these products
• Conducting outreach efforts to groups who do not usually access medical establishments with information and basic medical supplies for prevention and management of certain health conditions for which they are most at risk, such as HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases
• Collecting data from households and communities who do not usually access medical establishments for purposes of patient monitoring and referral and reporting to meet health regulations