This GP creates awareness in the health community through which defines and deploys homogeneous and effective community interventions.
Community health approach is a participatory process, and a key element to develop the Basque Health Plan 2013-2020 and the Integrated Care Plan. In practice, it can be understood as a process involving technical and professional resources, government and the community and, in a more operational sense, as a mode of action and an instrument to address issues related to health within a community context.
This requires a coordinated and transversal work in the health system with the rest of the public administration and social agents. It should work from all areas in a culture of health, focusing specially on promotion and prevention. The protagonists of the health community approach are:
• health professionals from the health care system and public health
• city halls
• other institutions: education, social services…
• citizens
In order to address the health community approach, the Department of Health, the Health Service System and the department of Public Health and Addictions formed a leading group for the assessment of needs and promoted and prioritized the implementation of homogeneous and effectiveness community interventions that respond to the identified needs.
The work was developed by 2 subgroups:
- Methodological subgroup.
- Training and community health awareness subgroup.
Resources needed
The training programme costs around 4000 euros. The participation of professionals from Health care system and Public Health department is needed and it has a cost around 100.000 euros.
Evidence of success
The programme and local health networks have been implemented gradually but it is intended to be a part of the work agenda of the professionals that are involved.
Collaborative and intersectorial work between different agents of public administration has been obtained: education, public health avoiding duplications in the programmes, interventions… and the visibility in the community of all existing resources and the confidence in the public administration has increased.
Difficulties encountered
It is needed that different professionals from different agents (councils, healthcare systems, public health) work actively in the health networks.
Some of the identified barriers were; difficulty for the intersectorial and collaborative work, difficulty to work with the community
Potential for learning or transfer
Community level is the micro context in which a high number of intermediate determinants of health influence, and in which is likely to public health policies and others, impact unevenly.
For this reason, it is necessary to address these determinants from a different perspective than the usual health policy making and closer to the reality of micro context in question. Such approach is the community health.
This practice requires a coordinated and transversal work in the health system with the rest of the public administration and social agents. It should work from all areas in a culture of health, focusing specially on promotion and prevention; the conviction should be a commitment of all people and all public authorities of the Basque Country.
The program and local health networks have been implemented gradually but it is intended to be a part of the work agenda of the professionals that are involved.
