About GSAHEC
Gulfcoast South Area Health Education Center (GSAHEC) envisions healthy communities where every person has access to quality care in our region. Our mission is to provide health education that improves the well-being of the communities we serve.
500+
Medical Interpreters
Trained
100+
Tobacco Cessation Participants
since 2007
600+
OutREACH students who completed our program
Gulfcoast South AHEC connects students to careers, professionals to communities and communities to better health. We inspire, train, recruit and retain a diverse and broad range of health professionals to practice in communities where the need is greatest.
GSAHEC is a not for profit organization affiliated with the University of South Florida AHEC Program. GSAHEC was established in 1995 and serves Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties. We are part of a larger, statewide network, the Florida AHEC Network, which includes five AHEC Programs and 10 Centers covering all 67 counties of the state. We are also an active member of the National AHEC Organization, which supports 56 AHEC programs with more than 235 centers that operate in almost every state and the District of Columbia.
Tobacco Free Florida Cessation Program
Since July 2007, the Florida AHEC Network has received funding from the Florida Legislature as part of the constitutionally mandated annual appropriation to the Florida Department of Health’s comprehensive antitobacco program. This funding has been used to develop and successfully implement a tobacco training and cessation program across the state. As a result, GSAHEC has trained thousands of health professions students and health care providers from a wide range of disciplines to effectively address tobacco use and dependence with their patients, and provided tobacco cessation classes to thousands of tobacco users in Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Student Programs
GSAHEC inspires youth to choose a career in the health professions with our health career recruitment and enrichment programs. We focus on recruiting more minority and disadvantaged youth into health careers because research and experience indicate they will be more likely to care for the medically underserved. As our population becomes more diverse, it is important that our health care workforce reflects that diversity.
Community Health Worker Program
GSAHEC’s Community Health Worker (CHW) training program, based on national models and in collaboration with community organizations, trains and supports CHWs who provide health promotion an disease prevention education to at-risk population in medically underserved areas. CHWs are community members who work almost exclusively in community settings and promote health among groups that have traditionally lacked access to adequate care.
