SACRAMENTO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 17, 2020 / It is no longer novel to say the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps the greatest public health challenge the world has faced in a hundred years. What is less well known, at least outside the health care industry, is the significant benefits that community health approaches to public health have provided in the world's effort to fight this virus.
Community health involves taking on a whole host of factors that are proven to affect individual and community well-being, including poverty, environmental pollution, social injustice and inequity, food insecurity, homelessness, as well as many other social determinants of care.
"'We're all in this together' is not a slogan, it's the fundamental truth that will help us defeat this virus," said Cynthia Telles, PhD, director of the UCLA Hispanic Neuropsychiatric Center for Excellence. "Treating a pandemic is, by definition, about a community-wide infection, as much as it is about treating the disease in any one person. Approaching it as only a medical care issue, instead of deploying this broader approach, leaves very valuable tools unused, and risks letting the pandemic drag on even longer."
In nations with significant infection rates, as well as in those with fewer cases, community participation has proven key to controlling the disease. This truth makes it all the more important to adopt community health strategies as regions fight COVID-19. Communities and health systems worldwide are recognizing and accept the necessity of a mutually beneficial relationship in order to defeat this pandemic.
While this approach may sound new, it actually has a long history, going back decades. At a World Health Organization/UNICEF-sponsored international conference on primary health care in 1978, with delegates from 134 countries including the U.S., a declaration was adopting pledging to work for universal access to primary health care. This Alma-Ata Declaration pronounced, community support and engagement as fundamental to expanding access to and improving primary health care. The idea has grown over the years, and recurring public health threats like the Ebola virus have confirmed the value of this approach.
"Community engagement can mean many things in the health care context, but one thing is certain: a community and its health care system are connected, and each needs the other in order to succeed," said Cynthia Telles. "Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the need for community support and participation in health care has been shown to be more important than ever. A community approach is the only way we will stop the spread of this virus."
The World Health Organization serves as an example of the different ways in which health systems and communities are interdependent: clinics and hospitals, surveillance staff and community health workers, policy development and human rights organizations, and so forth.
Research demonstrates the importance of community resilience: strong community leadership, tight communal bonds, and trust among health system stakeholders have been found to be critical for successfully addressing community-wide health threats.
Strong communities are those that work to improve environmental challenges, housing affordability, access to education, and encourage and help strong networks of all manner of community- and family-based groups. Similarly, strong health care organizations do more than hospitalizing the severely ill and injured, offering preventive care like immunizations, and providing treatment for cancer and chronic disease. The most advanced are also tackling social determinants of care including food insecurity, homelessness, economic challenges and social injustice.
Contact:
Andrew Mitchell, Cambridge Global
Phone: 404-368-7070
SOURCE: Cynthia Telles
View source version on accesswire.com:
https://www.accesswire.com/621422/Cynthia-Telles-Fighting-the-Pandemic-Requires-A-Community-Approach
