Comprehensive Community Health Promotion


Programs that become a part of the community are more effective and have longer-lasting results. Some possible strategies:

  • Coordinate your program with existing programs and resources in
    the community.
  • Collaborate with diverse community groups to match program goals
    to the needs of the community.
  • Sequence your program efforts to match the needs, interests, and
    rhythms of the community.

Effective Community Health Programs have two essential features:

  • They are integrated into the community.
  • They are comprehensive in nature.

A program that is comprehensive addresses several health problems by offering multiple health change goals through a variety of strategies. These strategies are delivered to the target audiences by using many communication channels. All efforts are closely evaluated before, during, and after program implementation. Listed below is a description of all the components that should be considered when designing a comprehensive community health promotion program. Use it to guide your coalition in the right direction. The Health Goals worksheet in this section can be used to facilitate discussion, and/or when completed, it can show where there are gaps in your efforts.


Multiple Strategies for Change
Getting people to change is no easy task. Using several behavior change strategies increases your chance of getting people to change their behavior.

Awareness Programs
Increase level of awareness or interest in the topic, e.g., newsletters, posters, health fairs, health screenings.

Lifestyle Change
Change the behavior of the individual, e.g., behavior modification, experiential learning, and skill building activities.

Supportive Environment
Programs that change the environment or programs that encourage healthy habits and discourage unhealthy ones, e.g., nonsmoking policies, grocery stores that label heart healthy foods, walking paths, regulatory and policy changes.

  • Program Design and Implementation [LINK]
  • Designing Programs With Multiple Health Goals [LINK]
Multiple Communication Channels
Using a variety of communication channels to deliver your message or product will ensure that information reaches the intended target. Don't depend on just one channel to do the job.

Media:

  • TV
  • Radio
  • Newsletters
  • Flyers
  • Booklets
  • Films
  • Newspapers
  • Ads
  • Posters
  • Email


Face-to-Face Contacts:

  • Classes
  • Counseling
  • Forums
  • Groups
  • Screening

 

Who Is Your Target Audience?
The more complete a "profile" or description you can develop of your audience, the better you will be prepared to develop a program suited to them. Try to think about all of the physical, behavioral, demographic, and perhaps, psychographic characteristics of the people you are trying to reach. These characteristics include:

Physical: sex, age, type and degree of exposure to health risks

Behavioral: media exposure, membership in organizations, health-related activities or actions and other lifestyle characteristics

Demographic: occupation, income, educational attainment, family situation, places of residence and work, cultural characteristics

Psychographic: attitudes, opinions, beliefs, values, self-appraisal, and other personality traits

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Community Health Promotion Main Page



See also > Center for Health Promotion > Health Promotion and Chronic Disease