Addressing Health Disparities in the Rural United States: Advocacy as Caregiving among Community Health Workers and Promotores de Salud

Rural populations in the United States are faced with a variety of health disparities that complicate access to care. Community health workers (CHWs) and their Spanish-speaking counterparts, , are well-equipped to address rural health access issues, provide education, and ultimately assuage these di...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-12, Vol.17 (24), p.9223
Main Authors: Logan, Ryan I, Castañeda, Heide
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advocacy
Caregiving
Community
Community Health Workers
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Data analysis
Data collection
Education
Ethnography
Health care access
Health disparities
Health education
Health services
Health Status Disparities
Humans
Indiana
Inequality
Interviews
Medical research
Mental health
Minority & ethnic groups
Pandemics
Patient Advocacy
Policy making
Populations
Qualitative analysis
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural Health Services
Rural Population
Rural populations
Rural schools
Social services
Texas
United States
Vulnerable Populations
Workers
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Summary:Rural populations in the United States are faced with a variety of health disparities that complicate access to care. Community health workers (CHWs) and their Spanish-speaking counterparts, , are well-equipped to address rural health access issues, provide education, and ultimately assuage these disparities. In this article, we compare community health workers in the states of Indiana and Texas, based on the results of two separate research studies, in order to (1) investigate the unique role of CHWs in rural communities and (2) understand how their advocacy efforts represent a central form of caregiving. Drawing on ethnographic, qualitative data-including interviews, photovoice, and participant observation-we analyze how CHWs connect structurally vulnerable clients in rural areas to resources, health education, and health and social services. Our primary contribution to existing scholarship on CHWs is the elaboration of advocacy as a form of caregiving to improve individual health outcomes as well as provoke structural change in the form of policy development. Finally, we describe how CHWs became especially critical in addressing disparities among rural populations in the wake of COVID-19, using their advocacy-as-caregiving role that was developed and well-established before the pandemic. These frontline workers are more vital than ever to address disparities and are a critical force in overcoming structural vulnerability and inequities in health in the United States.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph17249223