Health-related coalition development: A case study from Portland, Oregon

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Siobhan C. Maty¹, Bev Bromfield², and Molly Storch¹. (1) School of Community Health, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-0751, 503-725-5108, maty@pdx.edu, (2) American Diabetes Association, 380 SE Spokane Street, Suite 110, Portland, OR 97202

Diabetes is a major source of morbidity and mortality nationwide. In Oregon, the prevalence of diabetes rose 30% over the past 10 years and currently affects more than 6% of the adult population and results in over 1000 deaths annually. In addition to considerable personal challenges for both individuals with diabetes and their support networks, the burden of diabetes is significant for the community at large. Successful prevention and treatment of diabetes, therefore, requires ongoing and effective collaboration between clinicians, community service providers, policy makers and community members.

In the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, medical and social service providers, representatives from community organizations, university researchers, and community residents formed a coalition to collectively improve diabetes-related prevention and clinical services, service delivery and policy development in the region. Current coalition activities employ a community-based participatory approach and include networking, capacity building and conducting a community-wide assessment of diabetes risk, prevention activities and treatment services.

Our presentation will highlight the successes and challenges of the processes used to develop and maintain a community-based coalition. We will describe our coalition structure, partnership development, membership, leadership, decision-making, process evaluation, resource acquisition, and action strategies. Results of the coalition-driven, locally-funded community-based assessment of diabetes-related prevention programs, clinical resources, and social services within the Portland area will be shared. Finally, we will review how coalition partners collaboratively identified research questions, created study instruments, collected and analyzed data, and interpreted and disseminated assessment results to the local community.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

1.Describe steps involved in developing and maintaining community-based participatory research partnerships with clinicians, researchers, community service providers, policy makers and community members;
2.Describe the challenges in establishing, maintaining and sustaining community-based partnerships and what strategies were used to overcome them;
3.Consider application of findings from this case study to their own research settings

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Applications of and Outcomes from Community-Based Public Health Research and Education

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA