ESTABLISHMENT

CHARCOS is a not-for-profit community health research unit. CHARCOS was established in 2011 at SHSU, School of Medicine, St. Lucia campus. The CHARCOS office was inaugurated on Thursday 14 June 2012 by Dr. William Ayers, President, SHSU.

VISION, VALUES & PRINCIPLES

This unit embraces the Primary Health Care Policy of the Ministry of Health – thus; focusing on basic chronic health diseases/challenges directly affecting the population. The Community Health & Research Center of Spartan (CHARCOS) seeks to enhance health, wellbeing and equitable outcomes in St. Lucia by contributing to improving the quality of primary health care, health promotion and population health initiatives through research, evaluation and building the capacity of the workforce.

MISSION

• to advance understanding of health & illness in the community, workplace and family;
• to design innovative interventions to promote health and prevent disease;
• to inculcate knowledge in the community for advancement of health

CORE GOALS

• Public health is a vital contributor to the health of people at all system levels;
• Advancements in public health require evidence-based practice; building community self-care and collective-care capacity is important; and
• Community health practice, research and policy are trans-disciplinary in nature.

SCHOLARLY GOALS

• Development of critical thinking skills
• Commitment to a topic of interest
• Close collaboration with active faculty members who are leading scholars
• Application of knowledge to real-world situations