Place-based public health and community design

Nurses and other public health professionals share common concern with community planning and design professionals about public health problems and commitment to improving human well-being. Additionally, there is similar emphasis on community assessment, understanding social systems and identifying community and health needs. Both professional fields focus on vulnerable populations. However, there is insufficient interdisciplinary understanding - an essential requirement for full collaboration for improving health. Historically, the public health sector typically used a biomedical model while urban planning often relied on a geographic model (analysis of human needs or interactions in a spatial context). Today, as the CDC notes, these disciplines have expanded their tools and perspectives, in part because of the influence of the other. Nurses and other public health professionals focus on promoting healthy lifestyles and programs seeking specific health behavior change to reduce health risks. These efforts require multi-level intervention (socio-ecological framework) strategies to overcome environmental barriers to health, such as unhealthy housing, unsafe streets, no open space, and much more, along with the health and behavior change. Through active community engagement, the coupled expertise of community planning and design professionals and public health can greatly enhance the potential to achieve the common goal of truly improving a community's health status. Working together will require orientation to the knowledge and skills of one another, translation of organizing models, professional terms, technology, and other aspects of interdisciplinary collaboration.