Abstract
Community participation is one of the pillars of primary healthcare. In a primary healthcare approach, the community is considered vital to the design, implementation, and evaluation of healthcare services. Ideally, community participation entails efforts to reach underserved community members. Although healthcare service policies promote community participation, there is evidence of major gaps in community members', policymakers', and practitioners' understandings of its purpose, process, and outcomes. Therefore, this chapter will unpack the concept of community participation, firstly by giving broader definitions of community and participation and then explaining typology of community participation as well as the application of community participation in public health initiatives. In addition, the role of community participation in the prevention and management of COVID-19 is discussed.
TopIntroduction
This chapter aims to explore the concept of community participation and its role in the biological, psychosocial, and social aspects leading to both the development and management of disease and illness. Community participation is one of the pillars of Primary Health Care (PHC) and is fundamental to public health initiatives. In the background section of this chapter, a definition of PHC will be given and the way it is linked to community participation will be explained.
Although community participation appears to be widely promoted in health care service policies, there is evidence of major gaps in community members’, policymakers’ and practitioners’ understanding of its purpose, process and outcomes (Kenny et al., 2013). The chapter unpacks the concept of community participation, firstly by giving definitions of community and participation separately, and then discussing the levels and typology of community participation, the application of community participation in public health initiatives as well as how community participation was used in the prevention of COVID-19 and the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. After detailed definitions are given, the role of community participation in the biophysical, psychosocial and social aspects will be discussed. The chapter makes a number of recommendations on how community members may be involved and engaged in disease and illness management in terms of biological, psychosocial and social aspects.
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
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define the concept of community participation
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discover how community participation is applied in public health initiatives
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recognise the role of community participation in biological, psychosocial and social aspects of disease and illness development
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recognise the role of community participation in biological, psychosocial and social aspects of disease and illness management
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design community participation initiatives to address the biological, psychosocial and social aspects leading to the development of disease and illness, as well as their management.
Main Focus Of The Chapter
This section focuses on the fundamental issues of this chapter as mentioned in the introduction. In the sections that follow, a definition of community participation and its application to public health initiatives are discussed in detail. The roles played by community participation in the biological, psychosocial and social aspects leading to the development and management of disease and illness are also discussed. In addition, the role played and the approaches taken by community participation in the prevention and management of COVID-19 outbreaks are explained in this section.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Community Involvement: Is the process whereby the community members are allowed to identify and define their own health needs, develop a course of actions on how these needs may be met and cooperatively decide on the desired outcomes.
Community Members: Are members of an entity or inhabitants of a defined geographical area or a defined boundary, who usually share common health issues and receive services from the same health care providers. Community members are identified by characteristics such as common interests and perspectives, a sense of place, joint actions, and social ties.
Public Health: Is a science that is concerned with protecting and promoting the health of entire populations. Populations can be individuals of all age groups at the local/neighbourhood, country, regional or global level.
Social Justice: Refers to empowering community members to claim their human rights, meet their needs and have superior control over the decision-making processes that have an influence on their lives.
Primary Healthcare: Is an approach used to provide fundamental healthcare, which is made universally accessible, affordable, and acceptable to all community members. The approach follows the continuum from health promotion and disease prevention to treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care as close as feasible to people’s everyday environment.
Policymakers: Are individuals who are involved in making health policies which are intended to give guidance for service providers and users.
Public Health Initiatives: Are activities conducted to protect and promote the health of entire populations, at the local/neighbourhood, country, regional or global level.
Community Health: Denotes the health status of a well-defined group of people and the actions conducted and the conditions prevailing for protecting, preserving, and promoting their health.
Community engagement: Is a strategy for involving people in health promotion activities as change agents and partners in the initiatives being conducted at community level, for the purpose of improved health outcomes.