About/Welcome
Mission: Creating Healthier Communities
The mission of the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences is to promote the understanding of social and behavioral factors that influence the health of populations and to develop and evaluate programs and policies designed to improve the public’s health. In recent years there has been a growing recognition that the social and behavioral sciences play a critical role in public health practice and in public health academics and training. Disciplines such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, and health education have emerged as important and essential subspecialties in both public health practice and research, educational, and training programs. The academic programs in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences are based on a strong theory and knowledge base in the social and behavioral sciences, with a heavy emphasis on social ecology, and are guided by the principles set out in the 2002 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report on Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century.
The department has a particular emphasis on community-based programs and works with grassroots, nonprofit, private, philanthropic, and governmental organizations. We collaborate extensively with other departments and centers in the Graduate School of Public Health (specifically the Center for Minority Health, the Center for Public Health Practice, Center for Healthy Aging, and the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities) to carry out our teaching, research, and service mission.
The department's educational programs have their base in an extensive array of funded research projects. Currently our faculty, through their research and development programs, are improving the public health knowledge base in such areas as: assessing the needs of communities and populations for the purpose of guiding policy and program development; initiating a range of culturally appropriate, community-based chronic disease prevention and management initiatives; assisting in the development, implementation, and evaluation of local and regional tobacco-control efforts; assessing health and welfare needs of the elderly; and assisting local provider organizations in streamlining their services.
Numerous agencies and foundations such as the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, National Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Pennsylvania Department of Health, Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center as well as several local and national foundations provide major support for the research program.
Read more about Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health: Academics »