What Is a Community Guide?
A Community Guide is a trained, locally embedded engagement professional employed by Reema Health to directly support health plan members facing social and behavioral health barriers.
Community Guides build trusted relationships with members, help them navigate care, and remove real-world obstacles that prevent follow-through.
They are central to Reema’s community-based care navigation model.
Who Employs Community Guides?
Community Guides are:
- Recruited, hired, and employed directly by Reema Health
- Trained in structured engagement and navigation workflows
- Supported by centralized operational oversight
- Equipped with technology for coordination and reporting
Health plans do not recruit, manage, or supervise Community Guides. Reema maintains full responsibility for workforce deployment and performance.
What Do Community Guides Do?
Community Guides engage members who are difficult to reach through traditional outreach methods.
Their responsibilities include:
- Conducting hybrid outreach, including phone and in-person engagement
- Building trusted, relationship-based connections
- Identifying clinical and social needs gaps
- Supporting appointment scheduling and follow-through
- Encouraging medication adherence
- Connecting members to community resources
- Re-engaging members disconnected from primary or behavioral care
Their work is focused on practical action and sustained engagement.
How Are Community Guides Different from Traditional Outreach Staff?
Traditional care management models often rely on centralized call centers or short-term outreach campaigns.
Community Guides differ in several important ways:
- They are locally embedded in the communities they serve
- Engagement includes in-person outreach when needed
- Relationships are built over time, not through one-time calls
- They are trained specifically to address social and behavioral health barriers
This approach improves successful contact rates and increases the likelihood that members follow through on care.
Are Community Guides the Same as Community Health Workers?
Community Guides share similarities with community health workers in their focus on trust and community presence. However, Community Guides operate within a structured, fully managed care navigation model designed specifically for health plan engagement.
Their work is:
- Integrated with health plan goals
- Aligned with quality and utilization objectives
- Structured around measurable outcomes
- Supported by centralized operational infrastructure
This ensures accountability and performance at scale.
Why Community Guides Matter
Members facing housing instability, behavioral health challenges, or social isolation often disengage from traditional outreach models.
Community Guides address these barriers directly by:
- Meeting members where they are
- Building trust through consistent contact
- Providing practical support
- Closing clinical and social needs gaps
By combining local presence with structured operational oversight, Community Guides enable health plans to reach members who would otherwise remain disengaged.
