Healthy workers, healthy communities: Engaging community health workers in worker safety and health promotion

Traditionally, workplace safety and health was primarily ensured by employers on worksites and through unions. The structure of work in the US has changed over the past two decades, creating a need for new approaches to worker health promotion and protection. There is a growing recognition of work as a social determinant of health and its interaction with individual, family, and community health, but worker safety and health has not been well-integrated into community health workers' areas of expertise. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has worked with several partners to develop a worker safety and health training curriculum for community health workers. Promotores de salud from the US-Mexico border have contributed closely to the structure and content of this training and have been deeply involved in the development process. The curriculum is centered around the technique of Motivational Interviewing. Over the course of 8 hours, participants engage in hands-on activities and small group work to learn the fundamentals of occupational safety and health (OSH), how to create a support network for OSH in their own communities, and how to help workers set up and follow through on an action plan by making effective referrals and following up with clients. This skills-focused curriculum can be a valuable addition to CHWs' training. The implementation of the training can help build community-based social support networks to promote and protect worker health and safety, which can have a far-reaching effect on individuals', families' and communities' abilities to attain optimal health.