Community Collaboration & Partnership Building (continued)
The training sessions will address the following curriculum elements:

Practice
Providing state of the art information on diagnosing and managing health conditions in a manner that is effective, efficient, patient centered and culturally competent.

Collaboration
Delivering a message that improving the health of communities requires working with others and providing practical techniques for forming, managing, and contributing to multidisciplinary community based collaboratives and partnerships. The training will also address how partnerships can expand the level of healthcare resources available to patients through their physicians.

Policy
Increasing recognition of the underlying causes of health problems and health disparities affecting California communities and the policy initiatives developed to address them. This segment would specifically address the role that physicians and physician organizations can play, as well the evaluation of various policy proposals.

Leadership
Providing encouragement and strategies for physicians to join the leadership from other sectors to tackle community health problems.

The initial sessions of the Prescription for Wellness Training Program will be built around the major projects managed by the CMA Foundation and will target the physician groups that are the primary audience for CMA Foundation activities. Target audiences will also include non-physicians such as community-based organizations, policy makers, public health workers and other community and healthcare stakeholders. This diverse audience will enhance peer learning, broaden the horizons of all participants, and enhance opportunities for building collaborations

Physician Focus Group Summary

Life experience or life path seems to play a role for those physicians involved with community health efforts. Many participants identified the presence of a family member or mentor who was key to their development of the belief that community involvement was part of what they should do. Particularly the minority physicians seemed to develop their commitment to community and helping others before choosing to become a physician. As a result, they brought this value of service to how they chose to be a physician. A number of physicians also shared the importance of a physician mentor in their lives who encouraged and supported their community health efforts. The mentor was seen as someone who provided encouragement, a listening ear and shared their experience and value in these efforts.

Giving back was central to physicians who were involved with their communities. A recurring sentiment was expressed by a number of physicians who felt they were obliged to give back to their communities because of the opportunities given to them. Again, among many of the minority physicians there was a very passionate expression that this was part of being a physician - being given so much, they needed to give back. A number of older physicians also expressed the sentiment that community involvement provided the public a chance to see physicians involved in efforts that did not directly benefit them. Many were concerned that over the last several years what the public had heard mostly was concern about lost income for physicians. And while they agreed this was often the case, this group wanted to make sure that the public continued to view physicians as advocates for the total health of the community. They felt their efforts and those of their colleagues were one way to do this.