The employment of community-based health workers (CHWs) in primary health care projects is a widespread experience, mainly in Third World countries. However, it is important to differentiate between the rural and urban profiles of these professionals. The replacement of medical/odontological/psychological professionals by CHWs alone may represent a limited approach to primary health care problems, leading to the development of different health care patterns, depending on the social class they are addressed. This paper points to need for the qualification of high-level health personnel also trying to identify the location of CHWs in this field, their technical specificity, as well as some difficulties observed in this practice.
Communities; Primary Health Care; Community Health; Health Agents
