-
Exploring Community Health Center and Faith-based Partnerships: Community Residents' Perspectives
- Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 24, Number 1, February 2013
- pp. 262-274
- 10.1353/hpu.2013.0016
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
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.