More Effective Living: A Partnership Approach to Health Education Programming

In September, 1974, the Kaiser-Permanente Medical Center in Santa Clara, California, and the West Valley Community College District entered into cooperative planning for delivery of consumer health education. Two months later, the first five classes commenced with a total enrollment of 53 persons, all of whom were HMO members. Seven years later, this joining HMO-community college health education program entitled More Effective Living (MEL) contains over 50 different classs titles, is offered cooperatively by two Kaiser-Permanente facilities and three locally-based community colleges, is scheduled in three academic semester time periods spanning 12 months and, is expected to serve an estimated 760 HMO members and community residents in the Spring 1981 semester. Although this paper addresses the HMO-community college partnership primarily from an administrative perspective, some background information is given to explain the basic concepts of the program design. For health educators, particularly those working in medical care, partnership with a community organization can be an effective way to deliver health education to a target population at minimal cost.