Community health workers are essential to MENTOR’s approach to improving healthcare in complex, challenging situations. We support and empower community health workers through training, capacity building and integration into healthcare systems.
Providing community health workers with the necessary knowledge and skills has:
- Improved health outcomes,
- Increased access to healthcare services
- Strengthened community engagement
Community health workers are integrated into wider, existing health services, enabling them to refer cases to health facilities when treatment cannot be provided at the community level.
When there is displacement or conflict health services can still be delivered without disruption because healthcare is based in the community. A good example of this approach is the work supported by MENTOR in the Central African Republic where community health workers move with their communities and can adapt to complex environments.
Community health workers also work beyond crisis contexts in more countries such as Angola. Here, community health workers help to deliver essential healthcare services and support malaria elimination efforts. Community health workers also support important surveillance work by collecting valuable epidemiological data from their communities.
MENTOR’s work with community health workers addresses the specific challenges in each country. They play an important role in both unstable and stable settings, delivering healthcare services in remote areas, and supporting under-resourced health systems.
