Program Planning for Evidence-based Health Programs

1. Program Planning for Evidence-based Health Programs

2. Steps in EBHP Program Planning • Select an important health issue and the population at risk. • Identify potential evidence-based intervention(s). • Establish broad-based partnerships. • Use a planning framework or model (RE-AIM or http://www.evidencetoprograms.com/).

3. Steps in EBHP Program Planning(continued) • Select an evidence-based program • Implement the selected program • Evaluate the program • Sustain the program

4. Select an Important Health Issue and the Population at Risk • Identifying a high priority need of your audience enables the organization to select an intervention that is relevant and has the potential to make a positive impact. • To establish need, select data sources that are realistic given your organization’s resources. • When possible, use at least one primary and one secondary source.

5. Identify Potential Evidence-based Program(s) • Research organizations and agencies generate databases (sometimes termed registries or clearinghouses) that catalogue and provide various details about the approved or endorsed EBPs. • Most EBP databases allow you to search for programs using various criteria (e.g., age group, setting, outcome of interest). • See www.ncoa.org for program summaries.

6. Identify Key Stakeholders and Establish Partnerships • Identify program champions within the organization and community. • Champions actively promote a program, build support, overcome resistance, and persist until the program is implemented. • Create strategic partnerships with two or more organizations to achieve a common goal through effective use of expertise, personnel, and other resources.

7. Selecting an Intervention • Assure key stakeholder support from partners and internal champions. • Selected program should: • Meet organizational mission • Match organizational resources and clientele’s needs • Identify initial funding sources and plans to transition to sustainable program within organization.

8. Implement the selected program • Program marketing and participant recruitment. • Participant retention. • Use of lay leaders in EBPs. • Lay leaders are individuals who do not have formal healthcare credentials who are trained to lead EBPs. • Use existing EBP materials and tools for logistics and data collection.

9. Planning for Program Evaluation • Evaluation reveals which program components were implemented, how they were implemented, and if impacts (such as changes in health status or disease rates) are due to the program itself or to some factor outside of the program. • Types of Evaluation: • Formative • Process • Outcome

10. Goals of Program Evaluation • To determine if program objectives were achieved. • To develop quality assurance and control methods for the program. • To identify the strengths and weaknesses of the program. • To determine if the program can be generalized to another audience or setting.

11. Goals of Program Evaluation (continued) • To identify hypotheses regarding health behavior for future programs and studies. • To build the evidence base. • To fulfill obligations to funders. • To be accountable to stakeholders and your audience. Source: CRC-SH Evidencetoprograms.com

12. Evidence-based Evaluation • Occurs at two levels: • Implementation (process evaluation) • Effects (outcomes evaluation) • Measure outcomes at both individual and community levels: • Assess changes in program participants’ learning, health behaviors, and health status • The effects of the program on community health status

13. Process Evaluation: Monitoring Fidelity in EBHP • Process of faithfully and accurately adhering to the core elements of an intervention. • Fidelity, or the preservation of the evidence base, is central to evidence-based health promotion.

14. Stanford Patient Education Research Center Evaluation Tools • The Stanford Patient Education Research Center is an expert in: • Developing, adapting, and testing self-administered scales in English and Spanish for research subjects with chronic diseases. • You may use their evaluation scales at no cost without permission • the items, their properties (if available), and coding and scoring instructions

15. Levels of Program Sustainability • Individual level – Maintenance of program benefits for individual participants after the program ends. • Organizational level – Maintaining program activities within an organization and making sure program goals and approaches adapt to changing needs over time. • Community level – Increasing the capacity of a community to develop and implement program activities.

16. Strategies to Increase Sustainability • Identify alternative funding sources. • Involve key stakeholders and form partnerships. • Align program services with organizational goals. • Select affordable supplemental services. • Change staff composition. • Consider volunteers, interns or lay leaders.