Community-Oriented Primary Care: Applying the model to a senior center

Community-Oriented Primary Care (COPC) is a model for planning, implementing, and evaluating primary care, health promotion, and disease prevention in the community. The model involves defining the community, identifying the health problem, conducting an intervention, and evaluating the impact of the intervention. Attendees of a senior center, a high percentage of whom were low income and minority, had a health problem of passivity; they were unwilling or unable to initiate educational and recreational activities. An eight-week leadership training program was offered that was attended by 12 older adults. Evaluation of the results indicated an increase in self-efficacy among the older adults after completion of the leadership training course and the initiation of new activities at the senior center.