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Connecting Communication Competencies to Public Health Practice: Community Health Workers as Non-Traditional Risk
Carina Zelaya1, Cynthia Baur2, Anita Atwell Seate1
1Department of Communication, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
Journal of Health Communication
|July 24, 2026
Summary
Community health workers (CHWs) developed six key communication competencies to navigate public health crises for Latine communities. These skills were integrated into coordinated practice, enhancing emergency communication strategies.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Communication Studies
- Sociology
Background:
- Public health crises necessitate trusted community-based workers for guidance and local concern resolution.
- Existing frameworks like CERC and RCCE lack practical guidance for community-centered crisis communication.
- Community health workers (CHWs) are vital for interpreting information and addressing uncertainty in diverse populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the communication competencies developed and applied by CHWs serving Latine communities during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To translate broad principles of crisis communication into practical, teachable competencies for CHWs.
- To provide a foundation for improving CHW training and integration into emergency preparedness.
Main Methods:
- Conducted two rounds of in-depth interviews with 41 CHWs in a large U.S. metropolitan area.
- Captured CHW experiences across both crisis response and recovery phases.
- Employed thematic analysis with a hybrid deductive-inductive approach to identify communication competencies.
Main Results:
- Identified six essential communication competencies: information seeking/sensemaking/verification, strategic communication/message design, conversational/cultural interaction, digital/media communication, collaborative/team-based communication, and system navigation/resource linkage.
- Found that CHWs integrated these competencies into a coordinated practice, not as isolated skills.
- Highlighted the practical application of these competencies in diverse community settings.
Conclusions:
- CHW communication practices extend existing Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) and Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) frameworks.
- The identified competencies offer a basis for developing targeted training and supervision for CHWs.
- Strengthening CHW integration into emergency communication preparedness is crucial, especially for linguistically and culturally diverse communities.
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