Community-Oriented Primary Care: A Path to Community Development

Abstract

Although community devel- | H. Jack Geiger, MD, MSciHyg opment and social change are not explicit goals of community- oriented primary care (COPC), they are implicit in COPC’s emphasis on community organization and local participation with health professionals in the assessment of health problems. These goals are also implicit in the shared understanding of health problems’ social, physical, and economic causes and in the design of COPC interventions. In the mid-1960s, a community health center in the Mississippi Delta created programs designed to move beyond narrowly focused disease-specific interventions and address some of the root causes of community morbidity and mortality. Drawing on the skills of the community itself, a selfsustaining process of healthrelated social change was initiated. A key program involved the provision of educational opportunities.