238826 Service Learning as a Strategy for Addressing Health Disparities

Saturday, October 29, 2011: 1:45 PM

Sarena D. Seifer, MD , Community Campus Partnerships for Health, Seattle, WA
Despite major advances in health care and health status in the 21st century, disparities persist between whites and people of color - creating one of the most pressing social justice issues facing America today. Schools and graduate programs of public health - with their roles in educating public health professionals, conducting public health research and applying knowledge to solve public health problems - have a unique and important role to play in eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities.

Coordinated by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health with funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Health Disparities Service-Learning Collaborative involved 7 schools and graduate programs of public that developed community partnerships that provided service-learning experiences for their students linked to the elimination of health disparities. Each of these programs had essential components of service-learning while being tailored to the specific needs, strengths and capacities of the particular institution and community involved.

During this presentation, we draw on the work of the Collaborative to describe service-learning as a curricular strategy for achieving public health core competencies, particularly related to working at the level of the social determinants of health.

Learning Areas:
Diversity and culture
Public health or related public policy
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Define at least three approaches to linking service-learning to health disparities Identify at least three meaningful roles for community partners in service-learning Formulate service and learning objectives for a health disparities service-learning course

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I directed the first and still the only national demonstration project of service-learning in the health professions, the Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program that ran from 1994-1998 and served as co-investigator of a recently completed follow-up study of the program that is published in the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. From 2007-2010, I directed the Health Disparities Service-Learning Collaborative of 7 schools and graduate programs of public health that demonstrated a range of approaches to connecting service-learning to the elimination of health disparit
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Service Learning Models: Increasing our capacity to eliminate health disparities.
See more of: APHA-Learning Institute (APHA-LI)