The Mission of the C. Everett Koop Institute is to promote the health and well-being of all people. The Koop Institute works to enhance our understanding of mental and physical health and the prolongation of a high quality of life through:
- Forming partnerships to design and implement model programs and methods
- Providing continuing leadership to guide individuals and organizations in implementing model programs and methods, and
- Communicating knowledge broadly to individual and organizational decision makers.
To support informed individuals as they seek to take charge of their health and well-being.
To continually reaffirm the physician-patient and teacher-learner relationships as the heart and soul of medicine and education.
To promote and support respect, to enable the right to adequate and accurate information, and to foster compassion for all people.
The CEKI envisions the day when society, including
individuals and communities, employees and employers, programs and institutions, and government work together to promote the health and well-being of all people.
The CEKI believes that this vision will be accomplished through the reform of the learning process that pervades all of society so that it embodies six key principles.
Learning is directed towards supporting the needs of individuals for future endeavors
- Co-Decision Making
Everyone is both learner and teacher. Individuals are responsible for their own learning. The goal of teachers is to enable and empower individuals to become independent learners.
- Emphasis on the Whole Person
The individual is only fully served when learning addresses the physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects of learning and of life.
- Team Orientation
Individuals understand that learning goals require cooperative means, with learners working together for the common good.
- Emphasis on Communication Skills
Learners and teachers, alike, are trained together to be listeners as well as communicators to others. Communication is the basic essential in the process of acquiring and using knowledge.
- Emphasis on Teachers as Generalists rather than Knowledge Specialists
Teachers link learning to life in the environment. Learning occurs with full awareness of the broad context of knowledge.