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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Monica L. Wendel, MA, MPH, Angela Alaniz, BA, Amber Schickedanz, MPH, Heather Clark, MSPH, CHES, and James N. Burdine, DrPH. Center for Community Health Development, School of Rural Public Health, 1266 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-1266, 979-845-5774, mwendel@tamu.edu

In September of 2003, the Brazos Valley Health Partnership (BVHP), a regional health partnership serving the Brazos Valley was selected as a national Healthy Communities Access Program (HCAP) by the Health Resources Services Administration. The BVHP is working to improve access to care for the uninsured and underinsured residents of the six rural counties of the Brazos Valley. The major goals of the project are to improve the capacity of the rural communities by leveraging existing resources and to facilitate creative partnerships among service providers. The major activities of the partnership are to integrate and coordinate services through co-location and centralized case management; to provide medication assistance; and to develop a transportation system for low-income residents. While addressing fragmentation of the health care delivery system, the ultimate goal is to assist individuals and families to reach self-sufficiency.

As community health resource centers have been developed in four counties, evaluation activities are uncovering issues and impacts unique to each community. These findings are being used for local and regional planning, as well as to inform development of organizational policies to support service integration at the local level. Local, state, and federal elected officials are also the focus of policy advocacy based upon these findings.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the value of using multiple evaluation methods to assess outcomes of activities.
• Discuss the application of evaluation findings to planning and policy development at multiple levels.
• Apply the methodologies discussed to other community-based participatory research projects.

Keywords: Policy/Policy Development, Community Collaboration

Related Web page: www.bvhp.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation