Interesting discussion and great points of view!
My early background as a consultant and my more recent background as a participatory design researcher make me respond the question with a clear “It depends!”
We have programs where people visited by CHWs (or Migrant/Community Health Volunteers) are called clients, and others where they are called patients. In messaging we often don’t use any of these terms, but use words such as “mother”, “child”, “people living in your catchment area” etc.
I can imagine geographies, health systems or other contexts where words like “patient” or “client” have connotations different from the ones exposed in this thread. Patients can “suffer” or “lack agency”, while clients or customers might “expect a quality of service”, “need to be satisfied”, etc.
With so many words overloaded with different, even conflicting, meanings and connotations, I don’t think there is a right choice of words. There might be a wrong choice, however, e.g. if it is merely based on preference and doesn’t consider the perspectives and concerns of different stakeholders, including patients/clients.
What does it matter? The words we use and the meanings we give to them influence the relationships between the people in the systems we act. What’s the practical consequence of this? The least we can, or should, do is to be deliberate in the choice of our words and try to make our assumptions and rationale transparent, in a language adequate to the people we are talking to.
Interested in what others think.