The cooperative movement at the service of social medicine
Community health is the collective expression of individual and group health, a field in which cooperatives play a key role aimed at strengthening this area.
As healthcare evolves, preventive healthcare and community health is becoming more important, along with more participative, sustainable models, areas where cooperatives have a great deal to contribute.
What is community health and why is prevention so important?
Community health is the collective expression of individual and group health in a defined population as a whole, determined by the interaction amongst the individual and family characteristics; the social, cultural and environmental setting; as well as the health services, the community resources and the influence of social, economic, political and global factors.
The community orientation of the healthcare services sets forth the idea of co-responsibility for the health of the community with which it is working. It is centred on health, and not on illness, taking into account the contexts in which the people and the communities live. This orientation is essentially participative, cooperative, interdisciplinary and inter-sectorial.
Strengthening preventive health and increasing health safety would allow costs to be reduced, at the same time as easing the burden on the system. In Spain, seven out of every ten euros in healthcare expenditure is used for curative care, rehabilitation and long-term care.
Cooperatives as key agents in community healthcare
Healthcare cooperatives (organisations that provide healthcare services), are sustainable and close, present both in primary and specialised care, as well as in social healthcare services, the promotion of healthy habits and the prevention of illnesses.
Beyond maximising the economic benefit, their aim is to offer the best services and have a positive impact on society. For all these reasons, cooperatives are essential for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.”
These cooperatives are people-orientated, rather than being based on profits and they invite the active participation of the members and users Therefore, they uphold a greater proximity to the region, generating confidence and community commitment.
Healthcare cooperatives contribute to prevention
Healthcare cooperatives promote a healthy lifestyle amongst their members, with specific actions such as:
The new technological tools can improve healthcare and allow cooperatives to reduce their expenses, which they can reinvest to improve the care quality.
In a cooperative company, the workers have advantages such as greater control over the company’s direction, but also over their own jobs.