Changing The Face Of Health Care Delivery: The Importance Of Youth Participation.

Young people are often the intended audience for health and social programs, yet they rarely participate in the decision-making processes that determine how these programs are designed, implemented, or evaluated. Failing to meaningfully engage young people, well-intended adults may miss opportunities to create relevant and effective programs and policies for youth. This article describes a youth-led health assessment conducted with researchers from an academic medical center accountable care organization and stakeholders from a local community center. We explain the process of recruiting and engaging youth in this project, along with health concerns they identified in their communities via a survey, including mental and sexual health, food access, and community safety, as well as recommendations the youth researchers developed for improving health and tackling inequities. Our findings show that youth participation fosters a deeper sense of empowerment and leadership potential. Policy makers and other health leaders should consider engaging young people as they make decisions about health care delivery.

Critical discourse, applied inquiry and public health action with urban middle school students: Lessons learned engaging youth in critical service-learning.

The Nuestro Futuro Saludable partnership designed a critical service-learning intervention focused on health equity and action. The ten-week afterschool intervention was implemented in a Boston middle school. Youths who took part in the intervention were knowledgeable about the social determinants of health in their communities, as well as to the barriers to health. Our findings indicate that engaging young people in a meaningful way will be critical if health improvement efforts are to be realized. We found that a critical service-learning framework that incorporates elements of applied inquiry and critical pedagogy was effective as a health intervention and provided opportunities for action.

Employing a community based participatory research approach to bear witness: psycho-social impact of the 2010 earthquake on Haitians in Somerville, MA.

We employed a community-based participatory research approach to assess mental health among the Haitian community in the Somerville, MA area. The development of the survey coincided with the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and so several questions related to the natural disaster were included in the analysis to increase understanding of the impact locally. We surveyed a convenience sample of 64 Haitians recruited with the assistance of the Somerville Haitian Coalition. The survey assessed demographic data, reasons for migrating to the area, response to the 2010 earthquake, and mental health. Mental health measures included the short versions of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Perceived Stress Scale. Participants reported high rates of stress and depression post-earthquake. On the CES-D, men reported higher average depression and stress scores than women (13.8 vs. 11 and 20.6 vs. 17.6). Our results suggest that social and family support resources may be beneficial to Haitians in our sample.

Research as curriculum: engaging undergraduates and community residents in immigrant health research partnerships.

BACKGROUND: Engaging undergraduate students in applied community research partnerships can promote greater health equity by providing students with the skills and capacity to work collaboratively with diverse populations. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this project was to develop a sustainable model to engage community members and students in public health research. METHODS: Using an integrated research-as-curriculum model, students, community members, and faculty collaborated on the study design and implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Community residents in the classroom provided insights that strengthened the research process and helped to develop our understanding of contextual factors that influence health and well-being. This model provides a mechanism by which to fully incorporate undergraduate students in interdisciplinary partnership research for health.

Lessons Learned from the Protección en Construcción Community Research Partnership.

PenC seeks to build community-university-labor partnership in order to design, implement and evaluate an intervention aimed at preventing falls and silica exposure among Latino construction workers. This study evaluated the PenC partnership process. Semi-structured partner interviews and surveys were used. Thematic, univariate and bivariate analyses were conducted; results were presented back to partners who then provided data context. Although all partners report increased capacity including new connections and knowledge, resident researchers, here promotores, are much more likely to share information with their neighbors and other local residents. Engaging residents can lead to deeper community penetration.