Welcome to Birzeit University

Department of Community & Public Health

Role of DCPH:

The primary role that the Department committed itself to from the onset was the investigation of important, yet neglected, health issues. With an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach to health, taking into consideration biological as well as socio-economic and cultural determinants, the Department began its activities by focusing on the priority issues of the time. Beginning with community surveys of health conditions and the training of community health workers, the Department gradually pioneered the production of health education materials, written in simple Arabic language. Once the project was successful and other local organizations began to follow suit, the Department ceased its activities in the area of material production, replacing this project with a focus on the study of water quality. Following this focus on environmental health and sanitation, the departmentment confronted issues concerning care of the elderly. With the conditions of the Uprising, came additional commitments to disability rehabilitation. Nutrition, women's health, and, recently urban health and non-communicable diseases, especially diabetes mellitus became areas for policy-oriented research. All of these topics were chosen in response to social need and the absence of systematic research/training and service provision schemes pertaining to such subjects.

Research activities are usually conducted in cooperation with local groups who provide health and allied health services to the local population. Research findings are used to generate discussions and highlight the needs of priority and excluded groups especially. Research is also the basis for planning action as well as monitoring and evaluating the results of implemented projects.

Prompted by the peace negotiations and the Oslo Agreements of September of 1993, the Department was compelled to re-organize itself so as to better meet some of the policy research and training needs of the interim period. With past experience generated through community-level and regional activities, the emergence of the Palestinian National Authority made it necessary to focus activities on national-level programs. Realizing the importance of changing approach, and maintaining its commitment to the ultimate improvement of health services and conditions, the Department immediately embarked on a training needs-assessment at the national level. As primary health care education was a need repeatedly articulated by most participants in the study, the department initiated a post-graduate diploma in primary health care in the early part of 1995. Consequently, the name of the department changed to Public and Community Health.

Return to DCPH page