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The Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program is a national initiative, begun in 1971, to improve the accessibility and quality of primary health care. The program was designed to encourage universities and educators to look beyond their institutions to create partnerships that meet community health needs, work toward the goal of decentralizing health professions training and link communities with academic health centers to promote cooperative solutions to local health problems.
Almost every state has an AHEC program. The program operates through a contract between the host medical school and regional AHEC centers. These centers may be independently incorporated, or they may be hosted by a local health care provider or community organizations. They all must have an advisory board with membership drawn from the region served by the center.
Development of the AHEC program in Wisconsin started with a small state grant in 1990. The program began receiving federal funding in 1991 and continues to receive federal dollars presently. The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health provides space, administrative and program staff for the AHEC Statewide Program Office on the UW-Madison campus. The Program Office provides oversight of statewide activities in partnership with a statewide board of directors composed of representative from each Center, the academic partners, and state and community organizations.
Today, the Wisconsin AHEC programs serve all the health professions programs in the state.
During the initial years of the program, Wisconsin AHEC developed four Centers encompassing the entire state. The population of the four regions was roughly equal when the original centers were created. However, in terms of geographic reach and number of rural underserved areas, the regions were very different.
In 2003, the Centers reconfigured their service areas to improve program delivery. Milwaukee AHEC assumed responsibility for additional southern counties. Eastern AHEC moved north and became Northeast AHEC. Southwest AHEC added a few northwestern counties. Northern AHEC continued to serve a 33 county region in the northern half of the state.
Despite these changes, as the centers transitioned from grant-making agencies (disbursing small grants to a variety of partners) to service agencies relying on their own professional staff to develop and deliver programs, the challenges presented by the size of their service areas, particularly Northern and Southwest, became more and more apparent.
In 2006-2007, in preparation for the 2008-2011 federal grant renewal application, a comprehensive assessment of programs, partnerships and program direction culminated in the decision to divide the Northern region into three centers and the Southwest region into two centers. Thus seven centers would provide funding for AHEC to locate staff closer to the region to be served.
The new federal funds enable the centers to expand their partnership with the UWSMPH and UW System campuses in each region, as well as the Wisconsin Technical College System campuses, private colleges and universities, local health departments and other agencies.
The Wisconsin AHEC system also receives funding through the state budgetary process. These funds are also managed by the UWSMPH AHEC program office. Additional financial support is generated through an allocation in the State of Wisconsin budget, private foundation grants and membership and service fees, as well as the substantial contributions of its academic and community partners in developing and maintaining community sites and programs.
In addition to developing new training opportunities for health professions students, Wisconsin AHEC looks forward to providing, through its three new centers, expanded access for communities to resources of the AHEC program and its academic partners.
In May 2010, Scenic Rivers AHEC became an independent 501(c)3 organization responsible for its own fiscal management and governing structure. SRAHEC is responsible for programming in 10 counties - Buffalo, Crawford, Grant, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Monroe, Richland, Trempealeau and Vernon.
In November, 2010, Scenic Rivers AHEC increased its staffing base by partnering with the
Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association’s new AmeriCorp’s program, the Wisconsin
HealthCorps. The focus for this new member was community health outreach and education developing programming for obesity prevention. In September, 2011, a new AmeriCorps member began service with Scenic Rivers AHEC as a mentor for high school students pursuing higher education in health professions and providing community health outreach with these students.
With the new fiscal year beginning July 2011, contracts were added to provide a marketing and outreach specialist with Scenic Bluffs Community Health Center and with Southwest Technical College and CESA #3 to provide K-12 programming outreach in the region. With the addition of these new partners, Scenic Rivers AHEC is prepared to grow throughout the region.
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