Empowerment and Participatory Evaluation of a Community Health Intervention: Implications for Occupational Therapy

2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar

Community-based organizations have experienced an increased demand for new and expanded programs, as well as pressure from private and public sources of funding to document the impact of their services and programs. This article highlights the importance of a participatory and empowerment approach to evaluating a community health intervention. A five-phase approach to implementing an empowerment and participatory evaluation process is described using a research study. The five phases included developing a partnership and planning the evaluation, developing a logic model, identifying the methodology and data collection, interpreting and reporting findings, and monitoring and utilizing evaluation findings. In this research study, a WebTV community intervention was implemented to assist community residents in accessing health information and resources through the project's home web page and the Internet. A group of citizen leaders was provided with a WebTV unit, training, and ongoing support and assistance. Citizen leaders used the unit as a tool to obtain health information and resources and to advocate and support community action. Implications of empowerment and participatory evaluation of this type of community intervention are discussed for community occupational therapy, including occupational therapists as agents of change and facilitators of skills building and organizational capacity.

1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Sharon Parkinson

Since the Victorian Coalition Government was elected to office in 1992, community health policy has undergone considerable change as part of broader initiatives within the public sector. In the context of changing policy, concerns have been raised in the field of community health regarding the direction of community-based health promotion. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of policy reform on the conceptualisation, priority setting and practice of community-based health promotion. A series of interviews was conducted with a small sample of community health centre managers and staff within metropolitan Melbourne. Findings suggest that there has been a significant shift in the profile of community-based health promotion, with increasing emphasis on health promotion in clinical encounters and in groups, and less project work and community development. In terms of the principles of the Ottawa Charter, health promotion has moved away from the areas of community action and building healthy public policy as the centres focus increasingly on direct service provision. This study discusses the influences on and implications for the changing profile of community-based health promotion and considers directions for the future.


Public Health ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina A. Galer-Unti ◽  
Marlene Tappe

The term “community health intervention” refers to the community-wide approach to health behavior change. While there are shared terms and differences among community health interventions, community-based participatory research, and social epidemiology, they remain different approaches to improving community health. Rather than focusing primarily on the individual as change agent, community interventionists recognize a host of other factors that contribute to an individual’s capacity to achieve optimal health. This approach recommends that a multisectoral strategy be undertaken in order to make changes to create an environment or foundation of a healthy community. These modifications can be environmental, political, economic, and/or sociocultural. Community health interventions have deep roots in the theories of not only health behavior, but also in those of social change. Increasingly, this tactic of community intervention has been adopted by public health researchers and practitioners in many countries. This article provides a collection of articles, books, and monograms illustrative of the history and theoretical foundations of community health interventions. This article also provides examples of community health intervention in practice, strategies, and techniques for interventions and evaluation literature on the topic.


2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (18) ◽  
pp. 3394-3405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Nilson ◽  
Karrie-Anne Kearing-Salmon ◽  
Paul Morrison ◽  
Catherine Fetherston

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate the experiences of women participating in a cooking and nutrition component of a health promotion research initiative in an Australian Aboriginal regional community.DesignWeekly facilitated cooking and nutrition classes were conducted during school terms over 12 months. An ethnographic action research study was conducted for the programme duration with data gathered by participant and direct observation, four yarning groups and six individual yarning sessions. The aim was to determine the ways the cooking and nutrition component facilitated lifestyle change, enabled engagement, encouraged community ownership and influenced community action.SettingRegional Bindjareb community in the Nyungar nation of Western Australia.SubjectsA sample of seventeen Aboriginal women aged between 18 and 60 years from the two kinships in two towns in one shire took part in the study. The recruitment and consent process was managed by community Elders and leaders.ResultsMajor themes emerged highlighting the development of participants and their recognition of the need for change: the impact of history on current nutritional health of Indigenous Australians; acknowledging shame; challenges of change around nutrition and healthy eating; the undermining effect of mistrust and limited resources; the importance of community control when developing health promotion programmes; finding life purpose through learning; and the need for planning and partnerships to achieve community determination.ConclusionsSuggested principles for developing cooking and nutrition interventions are: consideration of community needs; understanding the impact of historical factors on health; understanding family and community tensions; and the engagement of long-term partnerships to develop community determination.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Tanya Doherty ◽  
Nicholas Oliphant ◽  
David Sanders

This paper, presented as part of a workshop at the 2016 World Public Health Nutrition Conference, is one of a series of papers focused on ‘magic bullets’ versus community action for nutrition. This paper will describe the evidence base on the impact of CHW programmes for child health and discuss features of successful programmes. This is a timely issue as the World Health Organisation is currently leading a process to develop global guidance on community health worker programmes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Plácido Nogueira Arcanjo ◽  
Paulo Roberto Santos ◽  
Álvaro Jorge Madeiro Leite ◽  
Francisco Sulivan Bastos Mota ◽  
Sérgio Duarte Segall

More than two billion people suffer from anemia worldwide, and it is estimated that more than 50 % of cases are caused by iron deficiency. In this community intervention trial, we evaluated infants aged 10 to 23 months of age (n = 171) from two public child day-care centers. Intervention lasted 18 weeks. The 50-g individual portion (uncooked) of fortified rice provided 56.4 mg of elemental iron as ferric pyrophosphate. Capillary blood samples to test for anemia were taken at baseline and at endpoint. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of rice fortified with iron (Ultrarice®) on hemoglobin and anemia prevalence compared with standard household rice. For the fortified rice center, baseline mean hemoglobin was 113.7 ± 9.2 g/L, and at endpoint 119.5 ± 7.7 g/L, p < 0.0001; for the standard rice center, baseline mean hemoglobin value was 113.5 ± 40.7 g/L, and at endpoint 113.6 ± 21.0, p = 0.99. Anemia prevalence for the fortified rice center was 27.8 % (20/72) at baseline, and 11.1 % (8/72) at endpoint, p = 0.012; for the control center, 47.1 % (33/70) were anemic at baseline, and 37.1 % (26/70) at the end of the study, p = 0.23. The Number Needed to Treat (NNT) was 4. In this intervention, rice fortified with iron given weekly was effective in increasing hemoglobin levels and reducing anemia in infants.


1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-52
Author(s):  
Ellyn Varela-Burstein ◽  
Elizabeth Voight ◽  
Ernestine Pantel

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