Community development

Abstract

Compassionate communities as a public health approach adopts many of the principles of community development. Community development is organic, multifaceted, and not easily defined but some of the principles involve engagement, participation, and empowerment, working alongside individuals building relationships. Similarly, there is no single way of describing compassionate communities but it involves the interactions of social networks around the dying individuals and their families. Hence, a compassionate communities approach includes both formal and informal care to support those dying at home and their carers. The development of compassionate communities can be found around the world and they provide different perspectives. This chapter provides an overview of compassionate communities initiatives across the globe and considers the emerging research data. The literature to date has found that many of the compassionate communities initiatives are initiated by formal health services with a top-down model. Although a bottom-up approach is the most preferred model, there are very few examples of communities taking the ownership of providing informal care. Reflecting on the benefits and challenges of developing compassionate communities, the chapter outlines key questions to consider for community empowerment when thinking about initiating the development of compassionate communities.