Building Healthy Communities through Medical-Religious Partnerships

Posted by on June 15, 2009

Building Healthy Communities through Medical-Religious Partnerships
By W. Daniel Hale, PhD and Richard G. Bennett, MD

Building Healthy Communities through Medical-Religious Partnerships describes an innovative approach to the development of community-based health education and patient advocacy programs targeted at the prevention and management of disease. Partnerships between health systems and religious congregations, the authors show, can be remarkably successful at bringing appropriate care to people who are often difficult to serve. Describing programs based on a six-year collaboration between health care systems and religious organizations in Florida, the book offers valuable guidance for religious and medical leaders interested in developing similar programs in their congregations and communities.