Networking community health workers for service integration: role of social media

ABSTRACT

Community health workers (CHW) can play an active role in providing integrated HIV and harm reduction services. We used social media to create a virtual network among Vietnamese CHW. This paper reports CHW’s social media engagement and the relationships with other work-related indicators. Sixty CHW participated in an intervention for integrated HIV/drug use service delivery. Following two in-person sessions, Facebook groups were established for CHW to share information, seek consultation, and refer patients. CHW’s levels of online engagements were tracked for six months and linked to their service provision confidence, interaction with patients and other providers, and job satisfaction. The CHW made 181 posts, which received 557 comments and 1,607 reactions during the six months. Among the 60 CHW, 22 (36.6%) had three or more posts, 19 (31.7%) had one or two posts, and 19 (31.7%) had no post. Comparing the baseline and 6-month follow-up data, we observed that those who posted three or more times showed better service provision confidence (p = 0.0081), more interaction with providers in other settings (p = 0.0071), and higher job satisfaction (p = 0.0268). Our study suggests using social media to engage CHW in virtual communications to improve service provision in communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Networking
• community health worker
• service integration
• social media

Acknowledgements

Research reported in this manuscript was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number [R01DA041008], the National Institute of Mental Health of NIH under award number [P30MH058107], and the Fogarty International Center of NIH under award number [D43TW010057]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the NIH. The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the project team members in Vietnam for their contributions to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fogarty International Center: [Grant Number D43TW010057]; National Institute of Mental Health: [Grant Number P30MH058107]; National Institute on Drug Abuse: [Grant Number R01DA041008].