There are three core characteristics of the Community Health and Wellbeing Worker that makes them unique from other roles. These are:
- Universal – Based at a local level with a geography of 120-150 households, knocking on all doors in a universal way. This means that all households are in their mandate to approach, and unlike other similar roles, they do not just focus on specific or targeted conditions. Everyone in the household is included, they are universal.
- Comprehensive – covering ‘any and all’ issues that might arise within the household. This could include but is not limited to immunisation, mental health, dementia, management of chronic disease and breast feeding. They bridge the health and social care divide across the life course.
- Integrated – They don’t operate in parallel; they are employed by local authorities or primary care via PCN’s and are integrated into the primary care team with access to patient records. The play a variety of roles, from advising the team on potential safeguarding issues or liaising with the local authority if they identify housing or social care needs.
The role of the CHWW is to ensure targeted populations in areas of deprivation receive tailored health and wellbeing support by visiting people in their own homes and looking after everyone in the household. CHWW are people selected based on their character rather than their characteristics; those who are helpful, problem solvers, confident and persistent whilst maintaining respect and confidentiality to earn trust of residents. The specially recruited teams get to know families and assess their health, social and wellbeing needs, promote healthy living, signpost to appropriate services and make referrals to NHS services.
Benefits so far from the first scheme in London have included a 20% uptake in vaccinations per home, combating loneliness, identification of child carers, medicines compliance and early diagnosis of dementia – to name but a few. This shows that by offering holistic personalised care and support, a person is activated which creates a stronger foundation for their health and wellbeing in the longer term. For more information about how the NAPC can help support you to develop a CHWW initiative in your area, please contact napc@napc.co.uk.
Read our case study here
