Community health based on networking strategies. The case of Andalusia

Abstract

Community health is currently a strategy that is promoted by the NHS, and there is partly central funding to all the autonomous communities for this purpose, being one of the priorities at the state level. Health competencies have been transferred to the autonomous communities in Spain, so most of the actions at the three levels of community health (consultation, group and community action) are implemented and financed at regional level. In Andalusia, the Community Health Strategy is in the drafting and presentation phase, but is not yet implemented, although there is very interesting previous intersectoral work in the Health Promotion Strategy. This strategy is being implemented in coordination between the health system, other public systems as education, and the municipalities. In recent years there has been a lot of interest in local level work and asset-based community health. In this sense, many professionals have been trained and coordination profiles such as the Family and Community Nurse Specialist have been incorporated recently in the Health Services. The greatest barrier to working in community health is the shortage of professionals, the lack of coordination between professionals and sectors and the lack of experience in working with the community. As a facilitating element, we can highlight the experience of professionals working in networks, in projects such as the Local Health Action Network (RELAS) or the Migration and Health Network (Red iSir).