“Medicine can’t solve our health problems,” says Dr. Mark DeHaven. “Only the community can solve our health problems.” The reason, he says, is that medicine focuses on disease treatment, but the long-term solution requires a focus on promoting health and preventing disease by addressing the underlying causes of disease.
That’s why DeHaven “was so excited to participate on the Blue Ribbon Commission. The framework that was used and the people who were engaged in the process provide what is likely to be an excellent opportunity to break down barriers and allow the community to work together.”
DeHaven has appointments at the University of North Texas—where he is a Health Institutes of Texas professor, professor of family medicine, and director of research for the Primary Care Research Institute—and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he is the key function director for community engagement. He has worked on community health since 1994, not only in North Texas, but also in Peru and Mexico; he will begin working in China in 2010.
“The issues are the same ones in Dallas, Fort Worth, Lima, Mexico City and Beijing,” DeHaven says. “The Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization both report that 80 percent of chronic disease is preventable.”
What stands in the way of a community-based approach to these health issues? DeHaven says, “The lack of a collaborative framework where communication takes place.” Clinical medicine, medical research, public health, businesses, nonprofit organizations, governments and faith-based organizations all have an interest in improving the community’s health, but they all operate in silos.
In this regard, DeHaven says the United 2020 effort is “different than anything I’ve seen in the community.” The Blue Ribbon Commission enabled health experts from all these segments of the community to have an engaged dialogue. “Because groundwork of a very high quality had already been done [by the Collaborative Teams]—which is very rare—we were able to shift our focus from immediate needs to what we can accomplish ten years down the road. And we really paid attention to creating bold but achievable goals.”
Another key to successfully improving community health is recognizing that it is interconnected with the education and income focus areas. DeHaven says, “Health, education and income are all socially determined. Healthy schools and job opportunities are critical features of a healthy community. United 2020 enables us to demonstrate that we’re the kind of community that takes care of one another.”
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