Examine the motivations of the community worker, health

Reference no: EM133419642

Case Study: THREE PERSPECTIVES ON COMMUNITY WORK

This example is from a regional health authority whose mandate from the funding body was to address the increasing burden of chronic illness in the region. The regional health authority decided to set up Health Promotion Committees to encourage community participation in several towns in the region. The purpose and structure of the Health Promotion Committees was clearly specified. They were designed to be multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary.

The local government community worker:

I am employed as a community worker by local government and I engage with citizens and groups in a wide range of planning and service delivery aspects. I facilitated the development of the regional plan for childcare facilities and another plan to improve access for people with a disability. I have also been working with young people about their ideas for a skate park. I really don't know a lot about health promotion, but I attend the Committee to represent local

government's interests and ensure that we know about all the activities that are going on. I am not at skilled at all but when there is an activity planned, I make sure that I promote it as best I can. Sometimes I can't attend meetings as I have a very full schedule and lot of travelling.

The health service administrator:

My role is to ensure greater community participation in health promotion activities. Ideally, we want to see a much greater emphasis in our community on wellness rather than illness. I am employed full time by the regional health authority with funding from a national program to address some of the lifestyle issues that might be associated with chronic illness. We have set up Health Promotion Committees for each of the towns in the region. Our committee has a representative from local government and the education sector. Some sector representatives are keen to be involved and others are not interested. I think it depends a lot on personalities. Generally, it is very hard to get community members participating because not everyone is familiar with what health promotion is. But we try to get the community leaders involved. This town is a typical example whereby things happen via the grapevine and so having community leaders and champions who know exactly what's happening and can encourage the rest of the community to get on board is really useful. There are a lot of community views though about the services we have here. People rally around to protect them when we try and make changes.

The community member perspective

In our community there is an impetus for us to take an active role in maintaining our services of all kinds to try and prevent their roll back. So that's why I became a member of the Health Promotion Committee. I didn't know anything about health promotion but I like to have a say and to represent the needs of the community at all opportunities. Perhaps lobbying is not the right work but advocating definitely. We have to keep putting our views up front with the government agencies or otherwise we will lose our services. This has happened in the past and we have been threatened with the closure of our rehabilitation service and our hospital

and if we are not quite vigilant it is likely that next time there is health 'reform' our services might be closed. We have fought for many years to keep our hospital. There have been many of us involved in this action from different groups such as the service clubs and the business sector

Tutorial Questions

1. Critically examine the motivations of the community worker, health planner, and community members for membership of the Health Promotion Committee?

2. Are these motivations aligned? If so what works to assist alignment?

3. What value might there be in trying to distinguish between the different perspectives people hold about the Health Promotion Committee?

4. If you were a worker in a health agency in town what connections might there be between your work with individuals and the work of the Health Promotion Committee?

5. Critically examine the community work values and principles evident in this case study?

Reference no: EM133419642

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