Exploring Community Health Center and Faith-based Partnerships: Community Residents' Perspectives

• Published in: Journal of health care for the poor and underserved 2013-02, Vol.24 (1), p.262-274
• Main Authors: Patel, Kavita K, Frausto, Kenneth A, Staunton, Anne D, Souffront, Janine, Derose, Kathryn Pitkin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; African Americans; African Americans - psychology; African Americans - statistics & numerical data; Aged; Attitude to Health; Community health; Community Health Centers - organization & administration; Ethnicity; European Continental Ancestry Group - psychology; European Continental Ancestry Group - statistics & numerical data; Female; Focus Groups; Health; Health care access; Health care policy; Health promotion; Health Status; Hispanic Americans - psychology; Hispanic Americans - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Interinstitutional Relations; Los Angeles; Male; Middle Aged; Minority & ethnic groups; Neighborhoods; Partnerships; Preferences; Religion and Medicine; Spirituality; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1049-2089; 1548-6869; 1548-6869
• DOI: 10.1353/hpu.2013.0016

Community health centers (CHCs) play a critical role in the primary care safety net. Partnerships between CHCs and faith-based organizations are promoted as a way to increase outreach to underserved populations and support health-promoting behaviors and effective disease management. Through six focus groups (totaling 58 participants), we explored low-income residents' perspectives (African American, Latino, and White) of their communities, the meaning of health, the role of spirituality, and their experiences with and preferences for congregation-based health programming to inform future outreach efforts of a CHC. We found that community perspectives varied based on race/ethnicity and neighborhood, but health concerns tended to cluster by race/ethnicity alone. We also found that spirituality was deemed important for health by all racial-ethnic groups, but attendance at religious services, religious affiliation, and preferences for congregation-based health programming varied across and within groups. Community health center-faith based partnerships could facilitate health care access in underserved communities but may have limited reach among certain subgroups and individuals.