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Developing competencies in community health development.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

The University of South Carolina Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health offers a Community Health Development course providing graduate students with community field experiences. Along with traditional elements of learning, students partner with residents of a federally subsidized housing community and other health, safety, and community organizations within the housing community. Activities of this partnership are based on assets assessments, evaluations, the potential for sustainability and are community-driven. This partnership has resulted in higher quality youth programming, increased collaboration among service providers within the community, and solid learning experience for close to 150 public health students. This paper examines the course in light of established competencies for the preparation of graduate level health education professionals.

Introduction

Traditionally, health promotion and education efforts within the United States have been directed at the individual rather than communities and/or organizations. More recently, it has been recognized that health is tied to social and environmental conditions and thus, the health educator cannot merely focus on individual behavior change, but also must focus on community and policy level changes (Minkler 1994; McLeroy, Bibeau, Steckler & Glanz, 1988; Epp, 1986). In the 21st century, health educators also must be culturally competent (Denoba et. al., 1998; Buckner, 1994; Clark 1994), facilitate the development of community assets, (Kretzman and McKnight, 1993), and help create linkages between traditional and non-traditional partners (Kretzman and McKnight, 1993; Lofquist, 1983). The National Commission for Health Education Counseling (NCHEC) (1996) suggests that to be effective health educators must master seven competencies. These include the ability to assess both individual and community needs for health education; to plan, implement, and evaluate health education programs; to coordinate the provision of health education services; to serve as a resource; and to communicate health education needs, concerns, and resources.

Health educators should recognize the impact of social, economic, political and environmental influences on health and be able to use community organization principles to guide and facilitate community development (Denison, 1997). Wallerstein and Bernstein (1994) describe a two-part role for the community health educator; the first part is to serve as a resource and help create opportunities for people to share in community change efforts and the second part is to engage in the empowerment process as community partners. This involves conflicts and emotion and necessitates practitioners to confront racism, classism, sexism and other ethical dilemmas. Confrontation of these dilemmas and working to ameliorate them is the root of social justice and is another appropriate mission for health educators.

Standards for the preparation of graduate level health educators further reflect the above competencies (Dennison, 1997). If students of health promotion and health education are to become proficient practitioners in community settings, they need to become competent in assessing communities, developing collaborative partnerships, community organizing, and cultural competency. The course in community health education described in this paper provides an appropriate forum in which to develop these competencies. This paper will discuss the community component of this class as it aids in the development of these competencies for health educators.

Course Description

Community Health Development is offered twice yearly by the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior at the Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. It is a graduate course and most of the students who take it have completed coursework in planning, implementing, and evaluating health promotion/education programs. This course allows them to apply these skills in a community and to gain the above listed competencies including skills in cultural competence; the facilitation of community, business, and academic partnerships; community organizing techniques; assessing community...

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