Community health worker (CHW) and social worker (SW) collaboration is crucial to illness prevention and management, yet systems often engage the two workforces in silos and miss opportunities for cross-sector alignment.

In 2021, a national workgroup of over two dozen CHWs, SWs, and public health experts convened to improve CHW/ SW collaboration and integration across the United States. The workgroup developed a conceptual framework that describes structural, systemic, and organizational factors that influence CHW/SW collaboration.

Best practices include standardized training, delineated roles and scopes of practice, clear workflows, regular communication, a shared system for documentation, and ongoing support or supervision.