The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #68595

Catherine Sherwood-Puzzello, HSD, Michael Reece, PhD, MPH, and Tania Basta, MPH(c). Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, HPER Building 116, 1025 E. Seventh Street, Bloomington, IN 47405-7109, 812-855-2673, csherwoo@indiana.edu

Background: In southern Indiana, a community-academic partnership composed of a rural community-based organization, a hospital, the local health department, and a major research university, is focused on improving health care access among the Amish and elderly communities. Community-academic partnerships appear to hold great promise in helping to understand, and respond to, the complexity of public health issues in the nation’s rural areas. While these partnerships may result in better outcomes than non-participatory approaches, public health has yet to build a solid evidence base that documents the differences that result from such approaches. Methods: To document the mechanisms that have sustained the partnership and the extent to which the participatory approach has resulted in beneficial outcomes for the health of the community, a comprehensive process and impact evaluation, focused on the participatory nature of the project, was implemented. Results: Data from the evaluation suggest that a participatory approach to this project has facilitated specific outcomes, including: 1) increased collaboration between diverse providers on the provision of services in the rural area, 2) greater understanding of the holistic health care needs of the Amish and elderly citizens of the area, and 3) enhanced ability to document the impacts and outcomes of the program components. Conclusions: A participatory approach appears to have direct outcomes that may not have been achieved via non-participatory mechanisms. Community-based projects will benefit by a commitment to document these outcomes and begin to build an evidence-base for the actual products of a community-based participatory approach.

Learning Objectives:

Learning Objectives:
• Participants will gain an understanding of, and strategies employed, to address issues encountered at different stages in the evolution of a rural health services research partnership.
• Participants will be able to identify unique challenges to a participatory research approach in a rural environment.
• Participants will be able to describe outcomes that distinguish participatory approaches from non-participatory approaches.

Keywords: Community-Based Public Health, Rural Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Presenting author’s disclosure statement: Organization/institution whose products or services will be discusses: None I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or servi
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.