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<\/p>\nAs a community\u00a0health\u00a0worker and executive director of the National Association of Community\u00a0Health\u00a0Workers, I\u2019ve spent the past year gathering insights about the\u00a0mental and emotional challenges\u00a0for the people on the front lines of pandemic response in neighborhoods across America.<\/p>\n
I know well the anxiety and guilt they feel trying to comfort and support families who\u2019ve struggled through loss after loss in isolation and uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Yet, on top of pandemic-induced pressures, recent events form a grim reminder of other, enduring American crises that our community responders face: a\u00a0string of mass shootings and the catastrophic consequences of racism.<\/p>\n
The horror of the\u00a0March 16\u00a0Atlanta mass shooting\u00a0of eight individuals, six of whom were from Asian communities, floored me. After the news broke, I called Theanvy Kuoch, a Cambodian CHW who has been a mentor, elder and friend for 10\u00a0years.\u00a0Long before she had the title of community health worker, Theanvy channeled her lived experience as a survivor of enslavement, hunger, disease and loss from the 1970s Cambodian holocaust\u00a0to support people living in her refugee camp.<\/p>\n
Four decades ago, Theanvy founded\u00a0Khmer\u00a0Health\u00a0Advocates\u00a0in America, bringing trauma-informed therapy,\u00a0health\u00a0and social services to other newly arriving refugees.<\/p>\n
During my recent call to Theanvy, so many questions flooded my brain. How was she doing? How had the news of the Atlanta killings of Asian women, along with the rise in overall racist attacks against Asian Americans, affected her? Affected her clients? And what did she and other CHWs need from partners and allies to be able to provide services in her community?<\/p>\n
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Community\u00a0health workers\u00a0push past their own risk factors and barriers to ensure that the families they serve can get tested for and\u00a0gain equitable access to vaccinations\u00a0and medical treatments. (Photo: ROBYN BECK, AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n In the ongoing\u00a0scramble to confront and conquer COVID-19, America needs to sharpen its focus on unheralded front-line community workers like Theanvy. Daily, community\u00a0health workers\u00a0push past their own risk factors and barriers to ensure that the families they serve can get tested for and\u00a0gain equitable access to vaccinations\u00a0and medical treatments.<\/p>\n By the end of April 2020, when the\u00a0COVID-19 death toll\u00a0in the United States\u00a0was over 62,000, Theanvy and I had collaborated with the\u00a0Austin Asian Community\u00a0Health\u00a0Initiative\u00a0to create a guide for CHWs that addressed the growing violence, stigma and blame against persons of Asian descent. We wanted to promote\u00a0ways that CHWs can support\u00a0our Asian American and Pacific Islander community members.\u00a0<\/p>\n They\u2019re doing the work of contact tracing, street outreach, eviction support, delivering diapers, medicine and food, advocating for immigrant rights and worker protections, and grieving with families. It’s work that would challenge the most physically and emotionally\u00a0healthy among us.<\/p>\n As the STOP AAPI Hate website tracks increasing crimes against Asian Americans,\u00a0Theanvy and other CHWs must increase their daily workloads by accompanying people who are afraid to go the grocery store or to travel to get their vaccine. They\u2019re also comforting people suffering from depression and anxiety due to racial violence.\u00a0And they\u2019re doing it without bonuses or subsidies, and with no fanfare.<\/p>\n Advocating for CHWs has never been easy. Most provide their services outside of established\u00a0health\u00a0services and systems. As a precarious workforce, predominantly made up of females of color in some of the lowest-paying\u00a0public\u00a0health\u00a0jobs, they often lack career advancement opportunities.<\/p>\n Our community-based organizations are often not eligible to apply for grants that fund CHW services and research. Without infrastructure support, our power to advocate for vulnerable communities is diminished.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the early days of the pandemic, the Department of Homeland Security identified CHWs as\u00a0essential critical infrastructure workers\u00a0who can provide significant contributions to COVID-19 emergency response efforts.<\/p>\n This guidance, along with nearly\u00a060 years of research\u00a0on CHW\u00a0effectiveness, two decades of\u00a0public\u00a0health\u00a0recognition, landmark\u00a0workforce development studies\u00a0and a\u00a0national labor classification,\u00a0should have engendered respect and authentic partnership with CHWs as\u00a0public\u00a0health\u00a0professionals. Sadly, many of us remain undervalued.<\/p>\n In February, my organization released a\u00a0National CHW Policy Platform, created over the past year with hundreds of community health workers, networks and allies. It is an important tool to promote national professional identity, leadership and capacity of CHWs and our associations.<\/p>\n These policy recommendations feature\u00a0best practices that can guide integration into larger COVID-19 response efforts. But unless\u00a0public\u00a0and private institutions heed the advice, these vital workers will continue to be sidelined.<\/p>\n It is past time to recognize the underappreciated expertise and capacity of our community\u00a0health\u00a0care workers, many of whom are coping with immense suffering and an ever-increasing need for their services.<\/p>\n With vision, we can transform our experiences during the\u00a0pandemic into an authentic movement for\u00a0health\u00a0equity, with adequately supported community\u00a0health\u00a0workers at the center.<\/p>\nWorking conditions are often difficult<\/h2>\n
How to support health workers<\/h2>\n