The Development of Community Health Services

TODAY S PRACTICE of providing community health services through local units was developed nearly a half century ago. It was well suited to the most critical health problems of that time and has continuously proved its value in bringing public health to the people. In recent years. however, there has been little extension of the traditional pattern of local health services. Many parts of the country still have no organized local health services. Other areas have services which are only fragmentary in nature. This may stem from the many changes in health problems which have occurred over the years. It may be that new and additional resources-such as voluntary health agencies. industrial health programs, insurance schemes, and other prepayment plansare now providing, more acceptably, some services which in the past were supplied by the health department. Or perhaps the greater interest of private physicians in preventive medicine coupled with better methods of communication and transportation and increased public enlightenment regarding the individual's own responsibility for his personal health have reduced the need for organized health departments. Whatever the cause might be in view of the many changes which have occurred, both in health problems and in resources for meeting them the entire concept and structure for the delivery of community health services should be reexamined.