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Partnering to Reduce Chronic Disease: Neighborhood Watch Committees in Belize
The Field School works within two resource poor communities which are home to more than 900 individuals. In partnership with local partners, students and researchers conducted a community needs assessments (San Martin: n=150; Juan Santiago: n=188).
Self-reported rates of diabetes (20.4%), hypertension (29.6%), and depression (13.2%) and the reported poor diet consumed by participants suggest the need for additional services related to chronic illness and depression. Experiences with delivery of the intervention support the role of lay health workers in health promotion and engaging hard to reach populations. Findings underscore the need to foster engagement, enhance local partnerships and ensure the translation of findings.
Results from this study informed the implementation of evidence based strategies to address high rates of chronic diseases, including the delivery of NHLBI's Your Heart, Your Life. This community-engaged model supports the role of field studies in fostering a strong, future Public Health workforce both in the US and abroad, while ensuring sustainable, community-driven programming. Barriers and facilitators will be discussed and recommendations for future initiatives shared.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programsAssessment of individual and community needs for health education
Chronic disease management and prevention
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Learning Objectives:
Describe the development process of a partnership between universities, ministry of health and community-based organization
Explain the experiences learned from utilizing the community-based participatory research as its theoretical framework as a platform to train public health workers
Identify lessons learned from the process of establishing a community of practice to address chronic diseases
Keyword(s): Chronic Disease Prevention, Community-Based Partnership & Collaboration
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been co-principal investigator with the co-authors in the development of health assessment programs; experiential learning for public health students; and development of health education programs to address chronic disease in Belize. As a higher education professional in Belize, I have led the development of academic programs at the University of Belize to address the gap in the human health workforce in Belize and in the English-speaking Caribbean countries.
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.