242711 Health Matters Community-Academic Partnership for people with developmental disabilities: Assessing organizational readiness for research, service learning, and training

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Beth Marks, RN, PhD , Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
Jasmina Sisirak, PhD, MPH , Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
Dina Donahue Chase, BS , NorthPointe Resources, Inc, Zion, IL
Leslie Hoelzel, MS , ARCA, Albuquerque, NM
Background: Many people with developmental disability (DD) are sedentary, obese, have poor diet, and consequently experience early onset of chronic conditions (e.g., CVD, osteoporosis, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes). Through our NIH funded HealthMatters Community-Academic Partnership (HealthMatters-CAP) for People with DD, two community based organizations (CBOs) and an academic health center (AHC) aim to build capacity among CBOs to develop infrastructures for culturally relevant health promotion research, service learning, and evidence-based trainings for people with DD. HealthMatters-CAP partners CBOs, who have a wealth of experience in providing day-today services, with AHCs to facilitate bi-directionality of research to practice by translating health promotion research into sustainable best practices for health equity. Methods: CBOs in two states were selected and convened to increase capacity by participating in training to inspire action at the local and state levels to reduce health disparities. HealthMatters-CAP incorporates participatory community engagement principles to develop criteria for assessing organizational “readiness” and determine common themes among for health promotion research, service learning, and training. Results: HealthMatters training sessions enabled CBOs to: 1) identify health promotion issues for people with DD; 2) utilize toolkits, resources, and strategies to develop action plans and evidence-based approaches to build healthy communities; 3) expand and sustain key community-academic partnerships to mobilize communities; and, 4) identify components for securing public and private funding for health promotion research, service learning, and training activities. Conclusion: Understanding “readiness” and themes among community partners can facilitate active engagement and mobilize community-academic partnerships to build capacity and eliminate health disparities.

Learning Areas:
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the shared benefits and shared responsibilities associated an community-academic research partnership. 2. Identify a set of criteria for evaluating “readiness” among community partners for health promotion research, service learning, and training activities among people with disabilities. 3. Formulate strategic planning recommendations for CBOs to build local community-academic partnerships for research, service learning, and training activities.

Keywords: Disability, Community-Based Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I oversee health promotion programs for people with disabilities.
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: Disability Section Poster Session 3
See more of: Disability