Category: Section Announcements

Community Based Primary Health Care (CBPHC) Pre-Conference:
How to Achieve Real Social Change: Opportunities and Challenges for Effective Collaboration and Partnership in Community Based Primary Health Care (CBPHC)

November 2nd from 8 AM to 5 PM
Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Room# 120B

Are you interested in best practices for collaboration and effective partnership for social change in global health?

The CBPHC Pre-Conference is an opportunity participate with international and national experts, CHWs, program planners, policy-makers, CHW advocates, donors, and others interested in CBPHC to define effective partnering practices and collaboration strategies that support CBPHC and social change.

Dr. Carl Taylor, CBPHC pioneer, wrote in his last publication, “Real social change occurs when officials and people with relevant knowledge and resources come together with communities in joint action around mutual priorities.” Effective CBPHC is grounded in collaboration and partnering practices to achieve social change.

Last year, the Astana Declaration at the Global Conference on Primary Health Care re-affirmed the critical role that primary health care (PHC) plays to ensure that everyone everywhere is able to enjoy the highest standard of health (WHO, 2018). While PHC approach is a foundational building block for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and reaching health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), achieving these stretch goals requires effective partnerships and collaboration in global practice.

This pre-conference sponsored by the Community-Based Primary Health Care (CBPHC) working group of the International Health Section will explore the role partnering practices play in global health. We will address the challenges inherent in diverse partnerships including power imbalances and potential tensions between community, donors, government, individuals, civil society, NGOs and universities. This participatory workshop will bring together international and national experts, CHWs, program planners, policy-makers, CHW advocates, donors, and others interested in CBPHC to define effective partnering practices and collaboration strategies that support CBPHC and social change.

Workshop Objectives:
1) Describe how four-way partnerships for sustainability function effectively to achieve universal health coverage (including the roles community, government, donors, and civil society, NGOs and Universities play)
2) Describe the potential tensions and power-privilege dynamics in diverse partnerships
3) Explain elements of effective partnering practices that support equitable collaboration

Keynotes include:

“An Ethical Lens on Collaboration in Global Practice” Dr. Jim Lavery, the Hilton Chair for Global Ethics, of Emory University
“Tools for Creating and Measuring Collaboration Globally” Dr. Nina Wallerstein, Director of the UNM Center for Participatory Research

You will be able to participate in working group discussions, and share your best practices for global health and collaboration! Cost of the workshop is $25 for students, and $35 for non-students!

TO REGISTER: Go to APHA Annual Meeting Workshops or register at APHA EventBrite

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Email the CBPHC Working Group at cbphcworkgroup@gmail.com

Hope you can come!

Laura Chanchien Parajon, MD, MPH
Chair of the CBPHC Working Group

Every year, the membership committee conducts a membership engagement survey to help us better understand how we can engage our members and track how we are improving this effort. On February 12th, we sent out a survey to all members over the APHA Connect list-serv. The response rate was 10.44% (n=237) which is a decrease from last year’s 12% response rate.

Of the members who responded, 38% were regular members (full, discounted, or affiliate), 26.6% were students, 22.8% were Early Career Professionals (ECPs), and 12.7% were retired. Almost half of the respondents 46.4%, have been an IH member for less than a year, 29% have been a member for 1 to 3 years, 7.6% of them for over 20 years. The majority (85.2%) indicated that they intend to renew their APHA membership and 89% of them intend to remain with the IH section.

The most common reason listed as the primary reason for joining APHA was: connecting/networking with other professionals (40.5%), followed by professional collaboration with other researchers/professionals (20.7%). About one-third of respondents indicated that they joined to either attend (11.8%) or present (11.4%) or advocate/lobby (11.4%) at the Annual Meeting.

Respondents were asked how easy it is to get involved with Section activities. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most difficult and 5 being the easiest, the percentage of respondents were; 1=6.6% (most difficult), 2=19.7%, 3=42.8%, 4=21%, and 5=10% (easiest). Most (79.5%) of the respondents have never been involved with the section committees or working groups.

A clear majority of survey respondents indicated that they were unaware of the Section’s communications platforms: the section website (65.5%), quarterly newsletter (62%), social media (67%) and APHA Connect (59.4%). A quarter of the respondents are aware of the section website, social media and APHA Connect but do not read. And a quarter of the respondents read the quarterly newsletter regularly. Many of the respondents (71.2%) are interested in using communications platforms to network with other section members and discuss global health research and advocacy programs outside of the Annual Meeting. Most of the respondents (81.7%) are also interested in attending regional meet-up event outside of the Annual Meeting.

Members were asked to indicate if they were interested in learning more about the Section’s committees and working groups and to provide their e-mail address so they can be contacted by our committees with information on how to get involved. Committees that generated the most interest among respondents were Policy/Advocacy (71.2%), Program (31.9%), Student (24.5%) and Mentorship (31.3%). Working groups with the largest number of interested respondents included Global Health Connections (70%), Maternal and Child Health (39.5%), Community-Based Primary Health Care (39.5%), and Climate Change and Health (37.9%).

If you have any questions about the survey or have an interest in additional analysis, please feel free to reach out to Jay Nepal or Rose Schenider of the Membership Committee.