Community Interventions

Many ethnic and racial minority groups in the United States experience disproportional rates of negative health and mental health outcomes. Given these health disparities, it is critical to develop interventions that address these populations' prevention and treatment needs. Community interventions are one effective way to reach a large number of individuals in their home communities with culturally specific health-promoting strategies and support.

Community interventions often involve improving people's well-being at the community level by altering factors that influence the targeted behavior or social situation. Thus, community interventions may create new neighborhood programs, bring about changes in public policy, or encourage the mass adoption of alternative behavioral practices.

Culturally appropriate community interventions involve components and strategies that are grounded in the values, norms, language, and customs of the targeted group. For community interventions to be culturally appropriate for racial and ethnic minorities, it is important to actively involve community members in all phases of intervention development, implementation, and evaluation. Using a participatory approach keeps all aspects of development and implementation transparent and alleviates concerns about the interventionists' motivations. This is especially important in light of the historical violation of ethnic minorities; one example is the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which the U.S. Public Health Service deceived 399 African American men with syphilis by making them believe they were receiving treatment when they were not.

By involving community members in all phases of the intervention process, the impact and sustainability of community interventions is often greater because communities (1) take ownership for and pride in the intervention, (2) are directly involved in intervention dissemination, (3) provide critical feedback regarding the appropriateness and success of intervention components, and (4) work to ensure that the intervention meets the cultural needs of the community. In addition, community interventions that involve the active participation of communities can build on existing strengths and resources, promote capacity building, and facilitate the development of new partnerships.