Project Plan (maximum length 1800 words (includes tables; excludes references)Sample Page
You are required to prepare a Health Promotion Program Proposal for a defined health issue.1) drowning prevention in older adults in a high income country.. Your project plan should be for a small-sized project that will run for approximately one year and has a budget $50,000 AUD of funding. You choose and refine the specific target group based on the evidence and statistics you research.
The preparation of a program proposal is an important competency for any health promotion practitioner forming the basis of funding proposals, strategic planning etc. Some areas as budget, evaluation and sustainability will follow in subsequent years of study.
The program proposal will hone your skills in being able to provide a rational argument as to why a particular health issue is worthy of a health promotion intervention. As a health promotion professional, you will be faced with having to provide evidence as to why a particular project should receive funding and resource support. You need to clearly articulate what the problem is, why it is a worthy area for intervention, who the target group or community is, and what factors contribute to this health issue.
You will need to present evidence that justifies the development of a health promotion program to reduce the stated health issue. You will not be carrying out your own data collection but relying on available data sources. This may mean that you need to make inferences from regional, state-wide and even national data, applying that to your selected target group/community.
This assessment is a combination of written academic text and tables and figures to show how the ideas fit together. Samples will be given in the tutorials to illustrate this. Your assessment should be no more than 1800 words (excludes the reference list).
Health issue: Introduce, describe and discuss the health issue you have chosen, why it is a health issue, clearly outline the context of the health issue for the setting e.g. HIC or LMIC.
The rationale: present the up-to-date epidemiological perspectives e.g. data on the nature of the problem, current mortality, morbidity and/or DALYs, severity, numbers of people affected, who is affected – age and gender distribution, trends, cost to the community including tangible and intangible costs and a comparison with other health issues. You should include graphs or tables to support the evidence you present in this section. This should be a discussion written in an academic style and you must include up-to-date references to score well in this section. You can use sub-headings to support the structure of this section and you need to discern what data is relevant for the health issue and setting you have chosen.
Target group: describe specifically who will your health promotion program be aimed at based on the evidence you have provided in the rationale. In identifying your target group it is advisable to restrict the size of the target group to a small geographical location (e.g. a metropolitan suburb or a country town) or you could use a settings approach (e.g. a small cluster of pre-school groups or mother’s groups, a small cluster of lawn bowling clubs, an aged care facility, or an institution such as a hospital/university). The target group must include demographics that are supported by the literature.
Behavioural theory: This is an important part of the Program Proposal assessment. You need to choose one (1) behavioural theory and discuss critically how this model underpins your approach and the program you are planning. Do not simply describe the theory, you must show how the constructs of the theory may inform your overall program plan and/or the target group selection, and/or your risk and contributing factors, and/or strategy selection. You should use examples from the health promotion literature to highlight the importance of using behavioural theory to underpin program design and delivery. This section should be a discussion (and may include a diagram to show how the theory underpins your program but not limited to a diagram only). This must include references.
Risk and contributing factors: Identify one clear (1) behavioural and one (1) clear environmental risk factor together with the contributing factors for each of these risk factors. The risk and contributing factors must be evidence-informed i.e. you need to include a citation with the description of each contributing factor. A table format can be used and a suggested template will be provided on Blackboard. If you use a table format for this section the words become part of the 1800 word count.
Project Plan: The Project Plan should include:
Title of the proposed program: e.g. Seniors Pedestrian Injury Prevention Program (SPIPP) (Be creative and think about what would appeal to your target group.);
Program goal: A SMART program goal for your health promotion program (1 sentence only);
Objectives: You will need to specify two (2) objectives that align with your risk factors listed above. (Ensure that they are SMART). (this equates to 2 sentences only).
Strategies: You need to discuss 3 strategies these are: 1) Communication; 2) Environmental and 3) Advocacy or a Policy strategy. These must be clearly articulated and provide enough detail for the reader to get a good sense of what you are implementing over the course of a one-year program. In selecting strategies, clearly illustrate a relationship between the objectives and each chosen strategy. List and briefly describe the strategy along with the relevant details, all three strategies must be addressed to pass this section. Each of your strategies needs to be realistic so keep in mind your 12 month timeline and finite resources. You should include citations with reference to the peer-reviewed and grey literature to support your strategy selection. NB: if you use a table format for this section the words become part of the 1800 word count
Conclusion: briefly present the main conclusions arising from the information you have presented in your assessment justifying why this is a health problem that should ultimately receive funding and resource support for a health promotion program. Do not introduce new information into your concluding comments.
References: Citing appropriate in-text references, and a comprehensive reference list provides support for your ideas. Please use APA 7 referencing and prepare your reference list in accordance with APA (please see: http://libguides.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa) References should be up-to-date and include a majority of peer-reviewed references. An overreliance on secondary sources and web-based references will score a lesser mark.
NB: Assessments that extend 10% over the word limit, will not be marked beyond the word limit 1800 words maximum. There is no +/- 10% in this unit.