Healthy Communities Programs in Latvia
In 1996, AIHA Riga (Latvia)/St. Louis (Missouri) partnership expanded its hospital-based work to implement the Healthy Communities process in the rural district of Tukums, west of Riga. The goal of this Healthy Communities initiative was to provide health education to families to improve the health status of the community, including preventing the spread of communicable pediatric diseases. Partners formed a community coalition to plan activities and address health problems in Tukums. A local padoma (council) that includes representatives from the municipal government; preschools and primary, elementary, and high schools; a child development center; a psychological center; churches; social workers; and local citizens meets regularly every two months with individual teams meeting more often to work on specific issues.
The St. Louis partners worked with community leaders in the Tukums region to design and implement various community health interventions. As a kick-off activity, community health project leaders designated October 1996 as “The Month of First Aid,” when First Aid-related activities were held at kindergartens, a fish factory, the police department, and other institutions. The program was successful not only in terms of educating the community, but also in actively engaging the community leaders in addressing healthcare needs and concerns. The Latvian partners actively disseminated the successes of the Tukums community health project, developing a program to replicate the Tukums model in other communities throughout Latvia. Partners participated in a jointly sponsored AIHA/WHO Community Health Conference and also presented at the AIHA Healthy Communities Dissemination Conference in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia.
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