Community Health Workers: Building Capacity and Impacting Policy Through Patient Leadership Development

Welfare reform, health care cuts, and recent anti-immigrant policies have created great challenges for immigrants in accessing quality and affordable health care. In response, Asian Health Services (AHS), a federally qualified health center in Oakland, California, has begun mobilizing its patients to ensure that local, state, and federal policies reflect the needs of its Asian immigrant patients. Informed by culturally appropriate strategies and an understanding of the health beliefs of their communities, AHS' multilingual and multicultural Community Health Workers (CHWs) established Patient Leadership Councils (PLCs). With a vision to expand to a total of seven PLCs (Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean, Cambodian, Laotian, and Mien) AHS' CHWs have established a unique model for patient leadership and engagement in low-income Asian immigrant communities. PLCs serve to actively involve patients in the planning and implementation of key activities, programs, by developing and advocating for solutions to their health care issues with policymakers. This session will highlight how CHWs are fundamental to not only helping AHS' patients achieve positive health outcomes, but also are key to establishing an advocacy arm that proactively addresses political environments and links Asian community members to policymakers. Implementation strategies used by the CHWs to engage various Asian ethnic groups in policy advocacy and health promotion will also be discussed.