Theories Of Community Psychology

“A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living” - Rudolf Steiner.
Community psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with person environment interactions and the ways society affects individual and community functioning. Community psychology focuses on social issues, social institutions, and other settings that influence individuals, groups, and organizations.
Public health refers to all organized measures (whether public or private) to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life among the population as a whole. Its aim is to provide conditions in which people can be healthy and focus on entire populations,

The insistence was made on 2 of these four models. The mental health model and then the Social action model due to the fact that they represent the polarities of the continuum in community psychology.
The mental health model is based on the explicit intention to prevent mental illness and its consequent disruption of the usual pattern of living. The strategy in mental health is to do crisis management and intervention, setting up health centres and local clinics. The critiques are that there is still little evidence of productiveness and it does not explicitly address social change as it is firmly rooted in medical discourse.
The social Action model emphasise prevention and promotes positive mental health. It helps people in communities to recognize potential and change structures as well as enhances community support and morale. Critiques are that it underplays the individual subjective experience and personal agency. Both models share the view that communities be protected from additional mental illness.
There are a few challenges in Community

The first model is sanitary science then it is social medicine. Third are community health and lastly the New Public health. Although there are four classifications it is important to note that they are not separate Public Health phases.
Public health is in comparison to individual psychology. It focuses on the broader social context including norms. Public health shares a common focus with community psychology and it is in contrast with clinical psychology. It is important to note that the public health approach is based on the Western based model. This creates a number of problems as it may conflict with a society’s beliefs and values.
The strategies in the Public Health is to promote health workers in the community and to change individual and community behaviour, lifestyles, beliefs and practices for prevention of illness, disease and injury. Another strategy is the encouragement and maintenance of mental health.
As there are critiques in Community Psychology, the public health also has critiques. There is potential for culture clashes in trying to promote mental