Community Based Education

Community oriented primary care is the governing philosophy of the Community Based Education Program. This approach, developed in the 1960’s, incorporates community needs assessment, population based planning and intervention, community participation and evaluation. The Health Center and the CBE program are committed to the principle that patients, health and disease must be viewed in the context of social, economic, political, and health system factors that significantly influence overall health. CBE helps provide this perspective.

Goals

The goals of the community based education experiences include:

• An understanding of the relationship between community and social factors and health status,
• Developing the skills necessary to work in partnership with community programs and residents to promote health and disease prevention, and provide disease management and support services, and
• The overall improvement of patient care.

To achieve these objectives, the Community Based Education Program has developed educational experiences with a variety of community programs throughout the state. In the coming years, we expect the number of participating community programs to continue to expand. Currently, medical students work with more than 300 community programs located throughout Connecticut.