WHAT IS COMMUNITY HEALTH?

Community Health is a specific discipline within public health that focuses on the maintenance, protection, and improvement of the health status of population groups and communities.  A community’s health status is determined in part by the conditions that exists in the places where we live, learn, work and play.  Also called the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), these factors have an enormous impact in shaping our health and well-being.  SDOH contribute to chronic health conditions as well as health disparities – differences in health outcomes between groups of people.  By working to create changes in policy, practices and systems, community health work aims to eliminate health disparities and improve health outcomes for all by addressing the root causes of inequities.