Community health agent
Community health agent (agente comunitário de saúde, or ACS) is a lay health worker in Brazil. It was created in 1991 through the PACS program as part of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) after the 1988 Constitution. The ACS was inspired by China’s barefoot doctors. They are not doctors or nurses. Their main job is to get to know a small community well and collect information about its health needs.
Originally, an ACS lived in the local area and had strong ties to neighbors, chosen to dedicate about eight hours a day to the work. Each agent is supervised by a doctor or nurse at a health clinic. They make home visits in the area served by a basic health unit to help identify the main health problems.
In 1994, the Ministry of Health created the PSF, the nationwide Family Health Program. Since then, ACS can be found in different roles within the health system. By October 2009, there were more than 260,000 ACS working in rural and peri-urban areas of small towns as well as in large cities.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 15:58 (CET).