The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #50072

Leah Binder, MGA, MA, Healthy Community Coalition, 20 Church St., Wilton, ME 04294, 207-645-3136, hcc@fchn.org

The Franklin Community Health Network operates in Farmington, Maine, and the surrounding county. Like most of the state of Maine, this large, rural county has no public health department. This session will describe how the local community hospital has joined with other health providers as well as United Way to work with community residents to identify community needs and address them. The cycle begins with a biannual series of visioning events-focus groups, key informant interviews, and then a community-wide meeting-culminating in consensus on a direction and priorities for the next two years. The process is guided by a community assessment based on locally collected data. Some of the creative, cost-effective ways devised to collect reliable county-wide data in a widely dispersed population with limited resources will be discussed. Once community priorities are established, the Network brings together various community assets-individuals as well as agencies-to create a plan of action. An innovative Health Card program has provided the partnership with a large database of mailing and demographic information about community residents that can be used for health education and promotion efforts. The substance of those efforts is based on the priorities and action plan jointly developed by the providers and the residents. The session will also describe some of Network's innovative programs, such as a multipronged approach to mental health in a community with very few trained mental health professionals.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

• Describe how a rural community with no public health department can create a partnership to address community health
• List several cost-effective methods for data collection and health promotion and outreach
• Understand how community resources can be tapped through collaboration and creativity

Keywords: Community Outreach, Rural Health Care Delivery System

Related Web page: www.fchn.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.