What is Community Pediatrics?

Community Pediatrics is:

• A perspective that enlarges the pediatrician's focus from one child to all children in the community;
• A recognition that family, educational, social, cultural, spiritual, economic, environmental, and political forces act favorably or unfavorably, but always significantly, on the health and functioning of children;
• A synthesis of clinical practice and public health principles directed toward providing health care to a given child and promoting the health of all children within the context of the family, school, and community;
• A commitment to use a community's resources in collaboration with other professionals, agencies, and parents to achieve optimal accessibility, appropriateness, and quality of services for all children, and to advocate especially for those who lack access to care because of social, cultural, geographic, or economic conditions or special health care needs; and
• A intergral part of the professional role and duty of the pediatrician.
  

The Pediatrician’s Role in Community Pediatrics

Efforts to promote the health of children have often been directed at attending to the needs of individual children in the practice setting, and providing them with a medical home. This approach, in combination with each pediatrician’s own personal community interests and commitments, has been dramatically successful. Increasingly, however, the major threats to the health of children in the US arise from problems that cannot be adequately addressed by the practice model alone. These include unacceptably high infant mortality rates in certain communities, extraordinary levels of injury, chemical dependency, the behavioral and developmental consequences of inappropriate care and experience, family dysfunction, sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies, and lack of a medical home. Pediatricians recognize that children and their health needs are best understood and attended to, within the inter linking contexts of biology, family, and the community.

Robert J. Haggerty, MD, FAAP, succinctly describes the unique contribution the community pediatrics approach can bring:

"Community pediatrics [has sought] to provide a far more realistic and complete clinical picture by taking responsibility for all children in a community, providing preventive and curative services, and understanding the determinants and consequences of child health and illness, as well as the effectiveness of services provided. Thus, the unique feature of community pediatrics is its concern for all of the population--those who remain well but need preventive services, those who have symptoms but do not receive effective care, and those who do seek medical care either in a physician’s office or in a hospital."

How to Join
If you are already a member of the AAP and would like to become a COCP member, join online by:
1. Go to http://www.aap.org/moc/indexEntry.cfm and login with your AAP ID and password.
2. Click on "Member Community".
3. Click on "Join a Section or Council" under Section, Council & Committee
Information.
4. Choose "Council on Community Pediatrics", answer a few questions, and click "Submit".

For More Information
If you would like more information about COCP publications or about the Council on Community Pediatrics, contact the American Academy of Pediatrics at cocp@aap.org or 800-433-9016, ext 7085.