Читать книгу Health Promotion Programs - (SOPHE) Society for Public Health Education - Страница 32

Communities are usually defined as places where people live—for example, neighborhoods, towns, villages, cities, and suburbs. However, communities are more than physical settings. They are also groups of people who come together for a common purpose. The people do not need to live near each other. People are members of many different communities at the same time (families, cultural and racial groups, faith organizations, sports team fans, hobby enthusiasts, motorcycle riders, hunger awareness groups, environmental organizations, animal rights groups, and so on). These community groups often have their own physical locations (for example, community recreation centers, golf, swimming, and tennis clubs; temples, churches, and mosques; or parks). These affinity groups all exist within communities, as part of communities, and at the same time, they are their own community. Health promotion programs frequently seek out people both in the physical environment of the neighborhood where they live and within the affinity groups that they form and call their community.

Within a community, the local health department and community health organizations work to improve health, prolong life, and improve the quality of life among all populations within the community. Local and state health departments are part of the government’s efforts to support healthy lifestyles and create supportive environments for health by addressing such issues as sanitation, disease surveillance, environmental risks (for example, lead or asbestos poisoning) and ecological risks (for example, destruction of the ozone layer or air and water pollution). The staff at a local health department includes a wide variety of professionals who are responsible for promoting health in the community: public health physicians, nurses, public health educators, community health workers, epidemiologists, sanitarians, and biostatisticians.

Community health organizations have their roots in local community members’ health concerns, issues, and problems. These organizations work at the grassroots level, frequently operating a range of health promotion programs that target community members. In this text, the term community health organization is synonymous with the terms community agency, program, initiative, human services, and project. Some community health organizations do not choose to use these terms in their names, deciding to use a name that reflects whom they serve, the health issue they address, or their mission—for example, the American Cancer Society, Caring Place, Compass Mark, Youth Center, Maximizing Adolescent Potentials, Bright Beginnings, Strength and Courage, Healthy Hearts, or Drug Free Youth. Regardless of their names, the common bond for community health organizations is their shared health focus.