Unique health care utilization patterns in a homeless population in Ghent.

Background: Existing studies concerning the health care use of homeless people describe higher utilisation rates for hospital-based care and emergency care, and lower rates for primary care by homeless people compared to the general population. Homeless people are importantly hindered and/or steered in their health care use by barriers directly related to the organisation of care. Our goal is to describe the accessibility of primary health care services, secondary care and emergency care for homeless people living in an area with a universal primary health care system and active guidance towards this unique system.

An interdisciplinary community diagnosis experience in an undergraduate medical curriculum: development at Ghent University.

Since 2002, the medical curriculum at Ghent University has incorporated a community diagnosis exercise, teaming medical students with master of social work and social welfare studies students. The course focuses on the interaction between the individual and the community in matters of health and health care. During one week, small groups of students visit patients and their caregivers in six underserved urban neighborhoods, and they combine these experiences with public health data, to develop a community diagnosis.

Towards unity for health utilising community-oriented primary care in education and practice.

Context: Although the evidence is overwhelming that healthcare is delivered more effectively if one involves the targeted communities in decisions concerning their health, top-down programs still rule the world.

Objectives: In order to highlight the benefits of a community-oriented approach, we report the experiences from Ghent, Belgium on COPC styled healthcare initiatives and COPC modelled multidisciplinary education. Community-oriented Primary Care and Education: COPC is a five-step model combining primary health care, public health and community data and resources.