Community-Oriented Health Services

Book excerpt: Grounded in a transdisciplinary approach, this groundbreaking text provides extensive, evidence-based information on the value of communities as the primary drivers of their own health and well-being. It describes foundational community health concepts and procedures and presents proven strategies for engaging communities as resources for their own health improvementñan important determinant of individual well-being. It is based on recommendations by the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and on the premise that healthy communities are those with populations that participate in their own health promotion, maintenance, and sustenance. The book is unique in its integration of environmental and social justice issues as they significantly affect the advancement of community health. The text focuses on community-oriented health interventions informed by prevention, inclusiveness, and timeliness that both promote better health and are more cost effective than individually focused interventions. It addresses the foundations of community-oriented health services including their history, social determinants, concepts, and policies as well as the economics of community-oriented health services and health disparities and equity. It covers procedures for designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating sustainable community health coalitions along with tools for measuring their success. Detailed case studies describe specific settings and themes in U.S. and international community health practice in which communities are both enactors and beneficiaries. An accompanying instructor's manual provides learning exercises, field-based experiential assignments, and multiple-choice questions. A valuable resource for students and practitioners of education, public policy, and social services, this book bridges the perspectives of environmental justice, public health, and community well-being and development, which, while being mutually interdependent, have rarely been considered together. KEY FEATURES: Offers a new paradigm for improving public health through community-driven health coalitions Includes evidence-based strategies for engaging communities in the pursuit of health Demonstrates how to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate community health partnerships Presents transdisciplinary approaches that consider environmental and social justice variables Includes contributions of international authors renowned in community health research and practice