Garnering partnerships to bridge gaps among mental health, health care, and public health.

Integrating mental health and public health chronic disease programs requires partnerships at all government levels. Four examples illustrate this approach: 1) a federal partnership to implement mental health and mental illness modules in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; 2) a state partnership to improve diabetes health outcomes for people with mental illness; 3) a community-level example of a partnership with local aging and disability agencies to modify a home health service to reduce depression and improve quality of life among isolated, chronically ill seniors; and 4) a second community-level example of a partnership to promote depression screening and management and secure coverage in primary care settings. Integration of mental health and chronic disease public health programs is a challenging but essential and achievable task in protecting Americans' health.

Community-institutional partnerships: understanding trust among partners.

This study examines perceptions about trust among people engaged in community-institutional partnerships. Focus groups were conducted with community, health department, and academic representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Prevention Research Centers Program. When asked to describe expectations about working with partners, the main themes identified were skepticism, optimism, and anticipation of challenges for community, health department, and academic representatives, respectively. Key themes identified as facilitating trust were related to characteristics of individuals (e.g., building interpersonal relationships), while barriers to trust were associated with organizational characteristics (e.g., academic reward systems). When explicitly asked, participants depicted the "object" of trust as residing at the individual level. Findings highlight the importance of partners' initial expectations in developing or eroding trust, the differences in factors that facilitate and hinder trust, and the important distinction between individuals and organizations as the object of trust.

Community engagement in Prevention Research: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Prevention Research Centers' National Community Committee.

The Prevention Research Centers (PRC) Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supports prevention research using community-based participatory research (CBPR) and other community engagement approaches. This paper describes the development of the PRC's National Community Committee (NCC), how the committee strengthened the national program's commitment to CBPR, the impact the committee's activities have had on national initiatives, and the lessons learned from supporting a national community approach in a prevention research program. Community representatives from each PRC's community committee were invited to share and exchange resources, knowledge, and skills to guide the national program. As a result, the NCC was developed. By embracing diversity, building capacity among members, and offering co-learning opportunities, the NCC helped to strengthen the practice of CBPR. The committee's activities helped to ensure community participation at the program's national level and led to involvement in other prevention research initiatives external to the PRC program. Program and committee leaders maintained a shared vision and increased community members' skills. The PRC NCC has taken the concept of community partnership to a national level and has changed the way some community members understand their role in research.