Dataset Information

Community organizing and community health: piloting an innovative approach to community engagement applied to an early intervention project in south London.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The importance of community engagement in health is widely recognized, and key themes in UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommendations for enhancing community engagement are co-production and community control. This study reports an innovative approach to community engagement using the community-organizing methodology, applied in an intervention of social support to increase social capital, reduce stress and improve well-being in mothers who were pregnant and/or with infants aged 0-2 years.

Methods

Professional community organizers in Citizens-UK worked with local member civic institutions in south London to facilitate social support to a group of 15 new mothers. Acceptability of the programme, adherence to principles of co-production and community control, and changes in the outcomes of interest were assessed quantitatively in a quasi-experimental design.

Results

The programme was found to be feasible and acceptable to participating mothers, and perceived by them to involve co-production and community control. There were no detected changes in subjective well-being, but there were important reductions in distress on a standard self-report measure (GHQ-12). There were increases in social capital of a circumscribed kind associated with the project.

Conclusions

Community organizing provides a promising model and method of facilitating community engagement in health.

SUBMITTER: Bolton M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4750521 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Community organizing and community health: piloting an innovative approach to community engagement applied to an early intervention project in south London.

Bolton Matthew M Moore Imogen I Ferreira Ana A Day Crispin C Bolton Derek D

Journal of public health (Oxford, England) 20150226 1

<h4>Background</h4>The importance of community engagement in health is widely recognized, and key themes in UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommendations for enhancing community engagement are co-production and community control. This study reports an innovative approach to community engagement using the community-organizing methodology, applied in an intervention of social support to increase social capital, reduce stress and improve well-being in mothers who w ...[more]

PMID: 25724610

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Dataset Information

Community organizing and community health: piloting an innovative approach to community engagement applied to an early intervention project in south London.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Community organizing and community health: piloting an innovative approach to community engagement applied to an early intervention project in south London.

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