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Introduction to the AHEC and
the Community
Session Outline
This session consists of
- Session Objectives·
- Session Overview·
- Clinic etiquette·
- Activities
Session Objectives
After completion of this session the participant will
be able to:
- Identify the objectives and components of the
AHEC curriculum and experience.
- Define the concept of service learning and describe
how it will be applied to your work in the community.
- Describe the state of healthcare in the District
of Columbia.
- Describe three assets of the District of Columbia
that can support the health of the community.
- Evaluate a particular health problem in the District
of Columbia in terms of potential causes and solutions.
Session Overview:
The AHEC curriculum is based on Service Learning.
Service learning extends classroom knowledge and skills
to the real needs and problems in the community, while
helping students become active learners. It can give
an understanding of what it means to be a responsible
citizen in a participatory democracy, addressing the
causes of social problems and not just the symptoms.
In the past, a university was often a community
unto itself; students and faculty may have had no
ties to the local community, and may have been of
a different class, ethnic, or national background.
The fear and security issues of the university community
and the resentment of the local community have often
placed the two at odds. Service Learning helps integrate
the University community with the local community
in a long-term relationship, forging links that are
mutually beneficial. Activity #1 below will
introduce you to the concepts of Service Learning
and the process of keeping a reflective journal to
document your feelings, ideas and experiences.
The process you will use to acheive this integration
into the community is by working within the community.
This is called Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC).
It will involve working with the community to identify
problems, selecting an area of concentration for intervention,
formulating a plan to address the problem, and frequent
re-evaluation and modification of the plan and intervention.
You may be joining the community at any stage of this
circular process. Activity #2 below helps you
begin to identify sources of information about your
community.
People often perceive poor communities as extremely
needy and deficient in resources and personal strengths.
In medicine and public health, practitioners are trained
to conduct a needs assessment before planning programs.
The emphasis on needs and pathologies reinforces a
negative view of people and communities and can contribute
to "blaming the victim" for problems that
often originate in the broader society, such as a
history of discrimination or a lack of employment
opportunities.
John McKnight and other public health workers developed
another approach to community assessments that recognizes
the strengths and capacities of neighborhoods. It
acknowledges that assets can be measured in non-economic
terms, such as community organizations and relationships.
Activity #3 lets you begin to think about community
strengths and asset mapping.
Clinic etiquette:
see Student Handbook
Activities
There are three activities for this session, please
click here or the button above to access the different
activities.
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