Community Participation or Manipulation

Community Participation or Manipulation

The Role and Effect of Community Participation in Public Health

The WHO Constitution established in 1948 states that "An informed public opinion and active cooperation of the public is of paramount importance for improving the health of populations.”But it was not until years 60s and early 70s that the practical usefulness of community participation to health projects and ownership by the community began be attention more and more marked. The contribution of the community in these projects contributed to the establishment of program priorities and agents community health have played an important part. In 1978, the full participation of the community in multifaceted activities undertaken to improve health became one of the pillars of the movement towards health for all. Charter Ottawa, signed in 1986 on the occasion of the First International Conference promoting health, believes that strengthening community action is one of five key priorities for action based on health prevention.

It has long been recognized that community participation is an effective way to help rural and urban populations to focus their energy and mobilize resources to solve their health problems, environmental and economic. When members of a community organize, plan and share tasks with professionals, contribute financially to projects or programs and help make decisions about activities that affect their lives, programs are more likely to achieve their goals.

Several countries have given their communities to participate in family planning programs. They found that individuals make better choices in contraception while participating in activities of family planning programs in their villages or neighborhoods.

Based on the experience, this issue explores the ways in which communities can participate in the promotion and delivery of family planning services. It provides the necessary conditions for effective participation of the community, and explores approaches to planning, monitoring and support for community teams that enable them to play an active role in planning for best health care.

Community Participation in Public Health Responses

The observed increase in participation is related to the progressive integration of units, as well as the dynamism of some. In contrast, the reduction is related to periods of administrative changes that slow the production process, resulting in a deficit of information.

Community committees are valuable because they formalize the initial actions, but their activity is low in general, on the grounds that it is a task of high dedication to its members formal or informal leaders with many jobs which tend to leave or not take it up.

It is observed that most are small-town community committees and municipal and school committees; these, participatory tradition, are more permanent, a fact pointed out in other experiences in United States.

The highlight is the community response manifested in the large number of volunteer developers. Most are "incidental promoters", mainly young performing sporadic, meaning they offer help in tasks that are interesting or necessary as cleaning campaigns, vaccination, organizing a sports event, ecological, cultural, and so on. A smaller percentage is "promoters' newspapers" engaged in actions weekend or monthly, in any ...