The East Cumbria Community Health Project

Abstract

The East Cumbria Health Project is in its second year and aims to encourage and support groups and individuals to explore, identify and action their own health education needs. The project is a unique joint venture between a local health authority, the United Kingdom's Open University and the Manpower Services Commission, who fund the project. The project employs one full-time co-ordinator and fourteen part-time community health facilitators. All facilitators were previously unemployed local residents. The project serves a mixed rural and urban community of approximately 180,000 in the North West of England between the Lake District and the Scottish Border. The project to date has demonstrated that non-professional health workers with appropriate training can work effectively to complement existing professional community health workers. The project has also demonstrated that workers drawn from the local population can be effective in stimulating local communities and groups of people to become more involved with health and health care issues. Finally, the project has demonstrated that community health workers drawn from the local population can act as useful links between the statutory and voluntary health services and local communities.