People who live in poor, remote places face considerable obstacles receiving health care. The high cost of treatment and transportation, the time required to travel to the nearest health facilities, and the stigma associated with disease often make it difficult for patients to access necessary services. For people living with chronic diseases like HIV and TB, these challenges make it hard to reliably access the medications they need to survive. For expecting and new mothers, these barriers often prevent pre- and post-natal checkups, important for the health of both the mother and child.

For nearly three decades, PIH has hired and trained community health workers to help patients faced with these challenges receive care. Our 12,000 community health workers around the world visit patients at home, assess their health, and link them with clinics and hospitals.

In Haiti, where PIH’s community health worker program originated, they are called accompagnateurs to emphasize the importance of accompanying people in their journey through sickness and back to health.

Living in the communities where they work, community health workers are trusted and welcomed into patients’ homes to provide high-quality services for a wide range of health problems. They help ensure patients take their medications regularly, provide moral support to people as they fight to get better, and monitor for signs of complications. For people living with HIV or other chronic diseases, this support enables them to live longer and healthier lives.

Community health workers also make sure patients have food, housing, and safe water so that they recover and remain well. They lead education campaigns on topics such as mental health, sexually transmitted diseases, and palliative care, and empower community members to take charge of their own health.

This model of care has resulted in significant improvements to patient outcomes, linking remote communities to country health care systems, and has been replicated by governments and organizations around the world.

In Malawi and Liberia, PIH Canada is supporting the expansion of the community health worker program into a ‘household model’. Rather than focus on patients with specific diseases, community health workers make regular visits to all households and families in their catchment areas. This means more comprehensive screening, referral and follow-up, reduces stigma surrounding visits, and increases social connectedness within the communities.