Health Education

1. 1
PLANNING OF HEALTH EDUCATION
PROGRAM
By
Nazar A. Mahmood
PhD Student
Community medicine department
College of Medicine
Hawler Medical University
2016

2. 2
 Planning is the process of determining in advance what one wishes to
accomplish in a programme or activity.
 Planning allows for proper organization, implementation and evaluation
of a health education programme.
 Any plans should be suitable with socio - cultural, psycho-social,
political, economic and situational characteristics
 The planners should be fully conversant with the health education
needs of the particular program
“ Plan ahead-It was not raining when Noah built the ark ”

3. 3
Planning in its broadest sense includes three steps:
(a) Plan formulation
(b) Execution; and
(c) Evaluation

4. Steps of Health Education Program
4
1. Situational Analysis
2. Making the “Community Diagnosis”
3. Defining the “Premises” and “Goal” of the Proposed Programme
4. Consolidating Data on Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours
5. Assemble the Planning Group / Coordination Council
6. Reconfirming the program goals, enunciating the educational
goals and the objectives
7. Resource Analysis
8. Identify Methods and Activities for Health Education
9. Writing and disseminating the Action Plan (Implementation Plan)
10.Implementation and Evaluation
11. Writing the Final Report

5. Steps of Health Education Program
5
Step 1 - Situational Analysis
 also known as “Community Analysis” or “Needs Assessment”.
 This step aims at gaining insight in the health problems of the
community to enable us to make a community diagnosis.
 This step of community analysis consists of following five sequential
steps:
A. Analysing the Community Backdrop
B. Analysis of Community Health Status
C. Analysis of Community Health Care System
D. Analysis of Community’s Social Organization and Support Systems
E. Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)

6. Steps of Health Education Program
6
Step 1 - Situational Analysis
Step 1 (a) - Analysing the Community Backdrop
 Aims at knowing the area and the community in health care jurisdiction
(or the community for which you are planning the health education
program) very well.
 By driving (preferably walking) around the entire area to find out where
are the work places, location of various governmental and
nongovernmental offices, location of various, markets, eating joints,
recreation facilities, industrial areas, schools, hospitals, other health
care facilities (as PHCs / subcentres).

7. Steps of Health Education Program
7
Step 1 - Situational Analysis
Step 1 (b) - Analysis of Community Health Status
 By collecting data about important epidemiological parameters about
health problems of the communities from various readily available
sources or by a quick sample survey.
 The main parameters, depending upon requirements include Birth rate,
death rate, IMR, MMR and Neonatal MR according to major socio-
economic categories (as age groups, sex and social class).
 obtain data on health-behaviour related aspects of the clientele. (diet,
exercise, tobacco and alcohol use, obesity and sexual practices),
personal hygiene and use of personal-protective measures, bathing,
hand washing and oral hygiene.

8. Steps of Health Education Program
8
Step 1 - Situational Analysis
Step 1 (C) - Analysis of Community Health Care System :
 collect and analyse data describing the resources for providing health care (both
curative as well as preventive) as are available to the community. (formally
recognized health institutions and informally recognised practitioners).
Step 1 (d) - Analysis of Community’s Social Organization and Support Systems
 The social structure and the social support systems are studied and analysed.
 The overall organisation of the community.
 The interaction between various community groups, the peers / leaders, the
opinion formers and the political climate is studied.

9. Steps of Health Education Program
9
Step 1 - Situational Analysis
Step 1 (e) - Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) :
Strengths are advantages that are of a permanent nature and exist in the
community. e.g. conservative attitude of a community is a strength for anti-alcohol
educational programme.
Weaknesses are disadvantages of permanent nature in the community e.g.
conservative attitude in the community may be a disadvantage while launching a
sex education programme for school children.
Opportunities are temporary, often flitting occurrences. e.g. if an outstanding
sportsperson becomes the mayor of the city, it is an opportunity to contemplate
launching a community educational program for healthy lifestyle.
Threats are temporary phenomena which may be inimical to the programmes;
recent occurrence of vaccine related adverse effects among children may be a
threat to educational program.

10. Steps of Health Education Program
10
Step 2 - Making the “Community Diagnosis”
• A community diagnosis based on the situational analysis.
• In the step of community diagnosis, clearly the following aspects are defined:
 What are the “target communities” which are to be addressed by proposed
health education?
 What are the major health problems that assessed and need to be
addressed by health education programmes?

11. Steps of Health Education Program
11
Step 3 - Defining the “Premises” and “Goal” of the Proposed Programme
• Premises are the outer boundaries within which proposed programme will
function.
• Goals are broad statements which reflect the end result that we desire to
achieve.
• Premises are generally defined in terms of the population characteristics, place,
time and the broad issues which will be the concern of the programme.
• it is not necessary to address all these identified needs through health
education programmes.
• For example if we have two major issues as HIV - AIDS and problem of open
defecation, we may, depending on the situation, decide to focus on HIV – AIDS
through educational efforts and tackle the problem of open defecation by
sanitary measures.

12. Steps of Health Education Program
12
Step 4 - Consolidating Data on Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours
• The ultimate goal of any health education program is to increase the knowledge
and obtain a favourable change in attitudes and behaviour by the target
population.
• Behaviour should be assessed in terms of “events” and “outcomes”. An event is
the actual behaviour (e.g. smoking, sexual promiscuity); an outcome is the result
of that event (e.g. IHD, AIDS).
Step 5 - Assemble the Planning Group / Coordination Council
• Community health education cannot be accomplished by a single health
educator. All representatives from the community, especially those who can
facilitate the program should be approached to consent for being a part of the
planning group. This includes the public health manager / health education
specialist as the secretary, an eminent / influential political or administrative
person as chairperson

13. Steps of Health Education Program
13
Step 6 - Reconfirming the program goals, enunciating the educational
goals and the objectives
• The goals are generalized & broad statements, while objectives are precise
statements which indicate as to how the goal will be realized.
• For one goal, there could be a number of objectives.
• Objectives should be specific, measurable and quantifiable in terms of
magnitude of change and time-line.
• Within each objective, the parameter which will measure change is called the
“indicator” and the magnitude of change proposed to be achieved is called the
“target”.
• For example, in an objective “Proportion of persons who are smokers should
reduce from current 45% to 25% in next 2 years”, the statement “Proportion of
persons who are smokers” is an indicator while the part “reduce from current
45% to 25% in next 2 years” is a target.

14. Steps of Health Education Program
14
Step 7 - Resource Analysis
Resources are analysed in terms of men, money and material.
• Men include primary manpower as health care workers and supportive
manpower.
• Money refers to assessment of funds/ finances which will be required,
• Material refers to technical equipment, expendables and logistics.
• It is only after making a detailed assessment of resources that the program
planner would be able to decide as to how best an action plan can be drawn
to meet the objectives.

15. Steps of Health Education Program
15
Step 8 - Identify Methods and Activities for Health Education
• Detailed decisions are taken to see which particular method(s) of health
education will be most appropriate to address the objectives for different target
groups, and within each method, what all educational activities will be
undertaken.
• (lectures, focus group discussions, exhibitions, mass media communication
methods etc.)

16. Steps of Health Education Program
16
Step 9 - Writing and disseminating the Action Plan (Implementation Plan)
A detailed action plan should be written down. This is a detailed document which
clearly specifies as to who will do what, to whom all, where, in what manner and
how frequently. The document should specify all details of:
 Dates / days of the week or month and timings, on which the educational
sessions will be held for the entire duration of the educational program.
 The locations at which the sessions will be held.
 Who all will attend the sessions at the particular locations, dates and time.
 Who will be administratively responsible for ensuring that the target audience
reaches the particular location of educational session, well in time.
 Who will be responsible for providing the administrative support.
 Who will conduct the session.
 Who will be responsible for technical aspects of the session.
 Who will be the overall coordinator for the educational activities.

17. Steps of Health Education Program
17
Step 10 - Implementation and Evaluation
 The programme is implemented and measures are taken to ensure that all
aspects of the program progress as scheduled in the action plan.
 Evaluative process also needs to be planned and conducted.
Evaluation is undertaken for six different aspects:
• Relevance, adequacy, process, and outcome (including efficacy, effectiveness
and efficiency).
“process”: (i.e. whether the activities are being undertaken as planned)
“outcome”: (i.e. to what extent the objectives have been met).
Evaluation should always be an ongoing process, with the drawbacks /deficiencies
noticed further analysed and change in program actions undertaken to rectify
defects that have been identified.

18. Steps of Health Education Program
18
Step 11 - Writing the Final Report
 the program planner must write down a detailed report of the program,
including the background, the target audience, the educational and program
objectives, the action plan, details of process, final results, and
recommendations for future programs.
 Such report is invaluable in assessing the current program and also serves as a
basic reference document for any subsequent health education programs.

19. References
19
 RajVir, B. Textbook of Public Health & Community Medicine, 1st edition. India,
Department of Community Medicine in Collaboration with WHO. 2009.
 Park, K. Textbook of Preventive & Social Medicine. 16th edition. India: M/s
Banarsidas Bhanot; 2015.