Oral

Collaboration between academic institutions and community organizations as a strategy to reduce health disparities in affected communities has been widely recommended and practiced in the field of public health. Intrinsic to the success of such collaborations is the ability of collaborators to function effectively in addressing mutually established goals. In addition, coordinated communication between health disciplines is essential especially for timely and efficient response to emergencies and disasters. The session will present the successes and challenges faced in building a sustainable coalition among diverse health disciplines and communities. These lessons learned can be applied to other forming partnerships or collaborations in a variety of fields. Methodology models to evaluate communication strategies and policies can help focus on outcomes and help create partnerships that lead directly to improve healthcare quality. Within the session are included studies that reflect perspectives of the community and academic participants on the existing coalitions and recommendations to improve them.

Session Objectives: Discuss strategies for building community dialogue and coalitions. Identify the benefits of building partnerships in communities and organizations to impact quality of services and address health care needs. Discuss evaluation tools and strategies of qualitative and quantitative methods to monitor and assess policies and systems in place for community dialogue and coalition-building.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)