The Area Health Education Center Program

Abstract

In the summer of 1976, I joined the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and in collaboration with Pertti J. Pelto, began the development of community linkages and community health research in the Hartford area. From the perspective of anthropological adaption to a medical school, our objectives in developing these activities were to: 1. Develop Jinks with citizen groups involved in health action, and through those links provide assistance and access to research and other resources of the university. 2. Develop settings within which medical anthropology students, masters students in community health, and medical students could learn basic principles related to the influence of a social context on health status and health care utilization and the function of applied research in health and community development. 3. Establish for anthropologists a realm within which to develop data, advocacy and demonstration projects in order to illustrate problems, shortcomings and new directions in the health status of underserved sectors of the population, in the organization of the health care system, and in the traditional education of medical students. 4. To begin to break down the barriers which create the separate realities of the university and the community in order to facilitate adequate exchange of educational resources, cooperative action and mutual learning.