Implémentation des principes liés à l’approche en santé communautaire dans les pratiques des structures de la première ligne en Belgique francophone

INTRODUCTION
Because of a lack of systemic support in the recent years, community health in Belgium materialize in isolated initiatives rather than an integrated package in the health system. Politics and scientists have addressed the need to revive these practices. There is a need to understand how the principles of community health – as derived from other countries and the literature - may guide the work of primary care actors in the Walloon and Brussels regions.
METHOD
During fall 2020, all the primary care organizations were invited to take part in a quantitative, observational and cross sectional survey by answering an online form. Based on a review of the literature, eight principles of community health practices were questioned.
RESULTS
Out of the 1801 organizations included in the study, 332 organizations answered the survey.
The results of the survey indicated the following characteristics: The practices are dominated by activities specific to prevention and promotion, are oriented towards individual behaviour with a lower attention to group activities, are initiated by a set of professionals, make little use of public participation, and the collaborative practices are limited to the health and social fields.
The most important difficulty is the involvement of the citizens to activities, well before the lack of human and material resources.
DISCUSSION
These results highlight that many principles of community health are not well adhered to. This study also indicates that the primary care professionals should be supported in order to absorb these principles and put them in context.