Outreach enables health care providers to identify individuals and families in need and enroll them in care. Outreach can bridge the physical, sociocultural and economic gaps that separate underserved people from health care providers. Outreach can educate individuals and families and encourage them to make appropriate use of the services available to them. Seven categories of outreach models are included in this compendium. Outlines of each model provide a template for replication.
Case studies document the application of each model to specific purposes.
Each of these models portrays one aspect of outreach. Most successful outreach programs utilize more than one approach. For instance, a successful peer outreach program may also incorporate mobile or offsite service delivery, media and promotion efforts, and community coordination. Whatever combination of outreach models a given programs employs, experience suggests that, to be successful, they must be carefully and specifically tailored to the population they are intended to serve community-driven and collaboratively implemented to capitalize on and enhance existing services financed with a mix of public and private funds sustained over time by the methodical collection and analysis of data, which can be called on to document the success of the program and direct needed adaptations. The Health Resources and Services Administration is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services health care access agency.