FRANÇAIS PRINT-READY PDF TABLE OF CONTENTS PREVIOUS PAGE NEXT PAGE RELATED LINKS Managing Your Health, 1999 edition Introduction
Community-based health philosophy
A community-based health philosophy is shaped by the health-care needs identified by the members of a community. It is these needs and the people who identify them that determine how and which services will be developed. In this sense, such a philosophy is built from the bottom up. Historically, the leaders of community-based AIDS efforts have been gay men, lesbians, and people living with HIV/AIDS. This is due to the initial neglect of AIDS by governments, the medical profession,
and social services. They saw AIDS as an illness affecting marginalized groups – people who were not considered part of the
“general public” (whose health matters).
Lesbian and gay activists, and especially people with HIV/AIDS, organized politically to put pressure on the government to take action. They developed a community-based health promotion model that includes treatment, care, support, advocacy, education, and prevention. This model was strongly influenced by the experiences of feminists responding to women’s health issues. People living with HIV/AIDS, gay men, lesbians, and people of colour raised the issue of HIV/AIDS within their communities. One of the challenges was to figure out how to address HIV/AIDS in a culturally appropriate way. Aboriginal
people, people from different cultures, drug users (people who use alcohol, street drugs, glue, prescription drugs, etc.), prostitutes, people with hemophilia, straight women and men, ex-prisoners, and many others have since successfully organized community-based responses to the AIDS epidemic, both within their own communities and in coalitions (networks of different groups).
A community-based health philosophy focuses on empowerment and advocacy. It involves you, the service-user, working with others to make informed decisions and develop strategies for the best possible health and health care. It also recognizes that people need resources in order to do this, and it encourages people to work towards better and more equal access to these resources. A community-based approach, which emphasizes working with others, is particularly important in responding to government cutbacks to health care and other social services, which limit resources. | 
