Perspectives of Community- and Faith-Based Organizations about Partnering with Local Health Departments for Disasters

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Michael Stajura⁴  Deborah Glik³  David Eisenman¹  Michael Prelip²  Andrea Martel⁴ 

[1] UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters, UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, Suite 26-081, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA;Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Suite 26-078, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA;UCLA Health and Media Research Group, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Suite 26-081, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA;Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Suite 26-081, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA;

关键词: disasters;    public health emergencies;    community-based organizations;    faith-based organizations;    local health departments;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph9072293

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Public health emergency planners can better perform their mission if they develop and maintain effective relationships with community- and faith-based organizations in their jurisdictions. This qualitative study presents six themes that emerged from 20 key informant interviews representing a wide range of American community- and faith-based organizations across different types of jurisdictions, organizational types, and missions. This research seeks to provide local health department public health emergency planners with tools to assess and improve their inter-organizational community relationships. The themes identified address the importance of community engagement, leadership, intergroup dynamics and communication, and resources. Community- and faith-based organizations perceive that they are underutilized or untapped resources with respect to public health emergencies and disasters. One key reason for this is that many public health departments limit their engagement with community- and faith-based organizations to a one-way “push” model for information dissemination, rather than engaging them in other ways or improving their capacity. Beyond a reprioritization of staff time, few other resources would be required. From the perspective of community- and faith-based organizations, the quality of relationships seems to matter more than discrete resources provided by such ties.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.