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Since its inception in 1989, the
ACCESS Community Health program has become the largest and most comprehensive
Arab community-based health and mental health center in North
America. When the ACCESS Community Health and Research Center
officially opened the doors to its new facility in 2003, it became the first of
its kind nationwide—a fully integrated community health ‘one-stop service’ center
that is comprised of medical, public health and research, mental health, and
environment programs. The founding philosophy maintains that health promotion
and disease prevention activities are the most humane and effective ways to
ensure the health and well-being of the community-at-large.
Central to its mission statement is
the provision of public health initiatives and the pursuit of research that focuses
on the health needs of Arab populations locally and elsewhere. In addition, the
center serves as a training site for residents, nurses, and public health
professionals in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Public
Health and Wayne State University
Schools of Medicine,
Pharmacy and Nursing. The Wayne County Health Department’s Women, Infants &
Children (WIC) program continues to experience significant growth.
Program Goals and Objectives
- To improve healthcare programming for minority
populations nationwide by gathering and disseminating the fundamental minority
health information
- To establish links between scholars in the Arab
World and their counterparts in countries with Arab immigrants, thereby
enhancing the understanding of disease patterns and epidemiology
- To create collaborative initiatives for
improving management of chronic diseases in Arab populations across the world
- To enhance understanding of non-Arab
participants of cultural and social factors that influence health-related
behaviors and decision-making among Arab populations
- To identify barriers to and solutions for
effective health promotion and disease prevention among Arab and other immigrant
communities
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