Advancing community health worker models to support youth and families’ mental health

Abstract

Community health workers (CHWs) have demonstrated effectiveness in delivering EBTs; however, the integration of CHWs in the U.S. mental health system remains limited. This Comment presents key recommendations for optimizing CHW integration into the mental health spectrum of care to better meet the needs of youth. We discuss necessary advancements across domains of practice, research, and policy to support the sustainability of these models.