How Does PATCH Work

The PATCH program is accomplished through a series of phases in which participating community members gain skills in five key areas of community health promotion:

I. Community Organization, an ongoing component of the PATCH program includes:

II. Data Collection

PATCH participants assess the community's health status by looking at morbidity, mortality, and other data, and by conducting community opinion survey.

III. Establish Priorities and Set Objectives

The data is collected and presented to the community group who reach a consensus on the priority chronic health problems to be addressed by the PATCH program. Objectives are established to reduce the leading causes of death and disability and to improve the community's health.

IV. Intervention Planning

To determine what resources are needed, PATCH participants explore existing resources in the community raise funds, identify needed expertise, recruit volunteers, and offer services and provide support to all PATCH activities. A work plan is then developed. This plan outlines these priority issues:

	The targeted chronic disease health problems.
	The selected risk factor(s) for the targeted chronic disease(s).
	The target group(s).
	The intervention approach.
	The method(s) of communication for reaching the target group(s).
	The plan of accomplishing the intervention objectives.

V. Evaluation

Evaluation is used to determine the success of the intervention and to monitor the entire PATCH process:

	Is the intervention achieving its objectives?
	Should the intervention(s) be changed, expanded, or repeated?

Technical assistance is available from the State PATCH coordinator to help with evaluation design, data collection, and data analysis.


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	Identifying persons for the core and community groups.
	Creating committees.
	Informing the public.
	Gaining local support for the PATCH philosophy.