Health Promotion Planning At a Glance

1. Health Promotion PlanningAt a Glance November 28, 2007 Larry Hershfield Jodi Thesenvitz

3. What is planning? • Planning is a series of decisions, • from general strategic decisions, • to specific operational details, • based on the collection and analysis of a wide range of information.

4. Why plan? • To get from your starting point to your desired end point. • To help direct resources to where they will have the greatest impact. • To ensure the development and implementation of effective and appropriate programming.

5. Levels of Planning Strategic Program Operational / Work / Action

6. Components of Planning Strategic Planning • Vision • Mission • Values / Beliefs / Guiding Principles • Strategies • Population(s) • Goals & Objectives • Activities • Details - $, timeframe, roles Program Planning Operational Planning

7. Relationship between planning types

9. Terminology Varies

10. Pre-planning and Project Management Step 1

11. Five elements to manage • Participation • Time • Money/resources • Data • Decision-making

12. 2. Time • Participatory planning takes longer. • Participatory ideals may conflict with political and cost issues.

13. 3. Money/Resources • Includes funds, staff, time equipment and space. • Includes in-kind contributions from partners. • Opportunity costs. • Must consider short-term expense vs. long-term pay-off.

14. 4. Data Gathering • On what information will you base your decisions? • Explored in detail in Step 2: Situational Assessment • What will decision-makers need to know? • Focus on assets as well as deficits • Look for data on underlying determinants (income,, social support, working conditions, etc.). • Look to “best practices” on your issue. • Examine theories underlying priority issues.

15. Tips for Using Theory • view as guidelines, not "absolutes” • view separate theories as complementary, not mutually exclusive • NEVER apply a theory without a thorough understanding of your population of interest • theories should not be used as short cuts • base criteria for 'success' on changes in your community, rather than successful application of theory

16. About Theory • Changing Behaviours: A Practical Framework • www.thcu.ca • Tipsheet: Summaries of Social Science Theories • www.thcu.ca • Theory at a Glance • http://www.cancer.gov/PDF/481f5d53-63df-41bc-bfaf-5aa48ee1da4d/TAAG3.pdf

17. 5. Decision Making • challenge of managing timely decisions throughout process • decide whether to proceed with planning • decisions on timelines and allocation of resources • consideration of political context for planning

18. 1. Participation • Participation of clients, staff and stakeholders is critical. • Plan with people, not for them. • Involve stakeholders in every step of the process.

19. Levels of Stakeholders • CORE - on the planning team • INVOVLED - frequently consulted or part of planning process • SUPPORTIVE- providing some form of support • PERIPHERAL - needs to be kept informed

20. Levels of Stakeholders

21. Conduct a Situational Assessment Step 2

22. What is a situational assessment? A snapshot of the 'present' used to plan for the future.

23. Is that different from a needs assessment? YES IT IS! • Like needs assessment, situational assessment focuses on collecting data on community needs. • BUT it also considers the broader social, economic, political and environmental context affecting community health needs. • Situational assessment also considers strengths, assets and capacities, not just problems or needs.

24. Why conduct a situational assessment? • To learn more about population of interest (i.e., who's affected by your health issue). • To anticipate trends and issues that may affect the implementation of your program. • To identify community wants, needs, assets • To set priorities

25. Types of Data • Quantitative polling/survey data • Community health status indicators (census data; ward profiles) • Community stories/testimonial • Evaluation findings • Research findings • Cost-benefit/cost-effectiveness data • ‘Best practices’ syntheses and guidelines

26. Sources of Data • Polling companies (through news reports, website) • Key community service organizations such as the United Way, Heart and Stroke Foundation (Health status indicators report, websites) • Community spokespersons • Journals, magazines, books • Consultants • Resource centres such as THCU, other OHPRS centres • Researchers • Government departments. • Private sector (e.g. Large food, athletic companies)

27. Techniques, Tools • Consultation with stakeholders: • Using individual consultations. • Using focus groups. • Through forums. • Literature review • Review of past evaluation findings. • Review of mandates, agendas, policies and/or guidelines of stakeholders. • PEEST analysis • SWOT analysis

28. The Value of Evidence & Best Practices • Integrate the good thinking of others • To get a “jump start” on your work so you are not starting from scratch • Other reasons?

29. …and what isn’t effectiveness evidence? • Because we’ve always done it this way • Anecdotal information • Surveillance data

30. Tips for Data Collection • Include data on strengths and assets, not just needs and problems. • Asset-Based Community Development • http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd.html • Use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data.

31. Use Qualitative and Quantitative Data • Talk to people to understand the true "meaning" behind the numbers. • Numbers may tell you what is happening, but will not tell you why it's happening. "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – Albert Einstein

32. What to do with all the situational assessment info? • Distill it down to the critical issues that need to be addressed in your plan (problems, causes, solutions). • Use the data as a baseline for change. • Use it as the rationale to “make the case” for your plan.

33. Identify Goals, Population(s) of Interest and Objectives Step 3

36. Goals usually: • are encompassing or global, • include all aspects of a program, • provide overall direction, • are general in nature, • take a long time to complete, • do not have a deadline, • are not observed, but inferred because they include words like evaluate, know, improve, and understand, and • are not measurable. From: Planning, Implementing & Evaluating Health Promotion Programs: A Primer. McKenzie et al. 2005

37. Program Goal: Examples: • To increase the number of schools that foster a school environment that enables students to make healthy choices (positive outcome goal). • To reduce the incidence of alcohol-related harm in Community X (problem reduction goal).

38. Objectives vary in terms of: • Process versus outcome • Time frame • Open versus close ended

39. Tips for Writing Objectives • Give yourself enough time: most objectives go through multiple rewrites. • Brainstorm collectively, but appoint a designated writer to produce draft objectives. • Beware of goals disguised as objectives (e.g, "to promote physical activity"). • Use a mix of process (activity) and outcome objectives.

40. Population(s) of Interest • a.k.a. audience, target group, priority group, segment of community • Consider who requires special attention to achieve your goal? • Programs may focus on a change to a system or environment in the short term but the long-term objective is about change to a population • Often hard to say “no” to some • Use situational assessment to assist in the decision

41. Identify Strategies, Activities, and Resources Step 4

42. Strategies and Activities • STRATEGY: broad type of intervention or approach to change (e.g., community mobilization). • ACTIVITY: a specific action to be taken within a certain time period (e.g., organizing a community forum as part of the community mobilization process) • Each strategy will likely have many activities; some activities are a part of more than one (even all) strategy.

43. Strategies • Community development • Education • Policy • ….

44. Activities • Workshops • Counseling • Product development • Curriculum design • Training • Field days • Conferences

45. Processes for Identifying Strategies & Activities • Brainstorm potential strategies for achieving objectives • Select the best strategies and identify specific activities. • Review current activities, decide what to stop, start, continue and cluster them into strategies • Look back to your SA data, and consider the needs, impacts, mandate, capacity.

46. Resource Considerations • What do you need to implement your activities? • What do you have available? • What could you get from others? • What, if any, activities need to be dropped or delayed until new resources can be found?

47. Develop Indicators Step 5

48. Indicators • Variables that can be measured in some way. • Indicators are used to assess the extent to which program objectives have been met.

49. Common Activity/Process Indicators • Members participating, new members, affiliates • Services provided: classes, workshops, newsletters, support groups, etc. • Member satisfaction

50. Common Outcome Indicators • Short-Term Outcome Indicators: • changes in awareness, • changes in knowledge and attitudes • Long-Term Outcome Indicators: • changes in skills and capacities • changes in health-related behaviour • changes in policies or practices • changes in supportive environments • changes in morbidity and mortality