Summary
The Ministry of Health has developed a Guide to Developing Public Health Programmes: A Generic Programme Logic Model to help people design and implement comprehensive, effective and measurable public health programmes that will deliver improved public health outcomes.
By developing a systematic programme logic for each public health programme, we aim to be able answer questions such as the following:
- How do we know the programme delivered better health? Are we measuring the outcomes adequately?
- What components are missing from the programme?
- Was resourcing adequate for each component of the programme and for the programme as a whole?
- Was the intervention mix effective? Was it based on evidence? Does it reflect the principles of the 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion?
- Do new interventions need to be developed to have a comprehensive range of interventions available for each component of the programme?
- Which parts of the programme are working? Which parts of the programme are not working? Do resources need to be refocused?
A comprehensive programme should be consistent with the Ottawa Charter and focus on:
- a defined population’s health
- addressing the determinants of health
- reducing health inequalities
- addressing Māori health by promoting the concept of whanāu ora
- using evidence-based interventions
- maximising the resources available
- being outcomes focused.
The development of such programmes is an ambitious task; this guide is to help make it happen. The guide describes a generic programme logic model and checklist that are designed to guide people through the steps of developing a thorough public health programme.