Community Health Worker Curriculum for Self-Management in Epilepsy

Community health workers (CHWs) can be found in hospitals, outpatient clinics, and various other settings across the country. They serve as a link between healthcare and communities, act as patient and community advocates, as “coaches” for disease management, and as guides to help patients through the health care system. They strengthen communities’ understanding, acceptance, and access to medical care. They can help eliminate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in health care. CHWs play an important role in bridging gaps between community members and health care providers; they help form a partnership that might otherwise not exist.

In 2017, the CDC created the Community Health Worker’s Training Curriculum for Epilepsy Self-Management to address population-specific concerns in epilepsy. It is a training manual for educating CHWs on epilepsy for use by various instructors, health educators, nurses, and other health care professionals at health departments, community clinics, community colleges, and other organizations and agencies. This resource is intended to complement other community health worker trainings and is recommended for CHWs who already have experience in the profession.