Health

Monitoring and Evaluation of Health Services

Level: Intermediate
Format: 3 full-day workshops

Government and organizations are increasingly being accountable for investments in health and human service programs to be more efficient and affordable. Demonstrating the success or progress of programs is not an easy feat as it needs to be based on tangible accomplishments of program process outputs and results in target populations. The class will address how health services organizations and systems can engage in tracking performance of health initiatives and programs, measuring health indicators, and applying modifications to improve the impact of health systems. Participants will become familiar with methods involved in the monitoring and evaluation of initiatives and policies and how these can inform strategic planning and other planning processes. You will learn:

How to construct a health services monitoring and evaluation system to learn about implementation actions, issues, and results achieved
How to use system as a learning resource that actively informs ongoing and future programming and decisions regarding health initiatives
Implementation approaches for ongoing monitoring and periodic evaluations
Basics of outcome mapping as a monitoring and evaluation tool

Actionable Evaluation in Public Health
Level: Intermediate
Format: 3 full-day workshops

The ever increasing demand for health and human services and programs underscore the need for efficient and affordable interventions that are known to work. Assessing the impact of health policies and interventions to understand the progress being made in health is paramount in times of limited resources. Decision-makers need this information for better resource allocation and policies. This class will focus on how to design and develop realistic, feasible evaluations of what works in the delivery of health care and expected health outcomes. Emphasis will be on evaluation questions that will provide actionable answers to stakeholders. You will learn:

How to write questions that will effectively guide evaluation of health efforts
What is a realistic design to gather useful data
What quantitative or qualitative data collection methods and metrics are most informative and feasible
How to summarize findings and write a report that facilitates the development of an actionable plan

Health Promotion Development
Level: Beginners/Intermediate
Format: 2 full-day workshops

We have all been witnesses of health programs that started with big expectations but which actual success is dubious or at most unclear. Successful, innovative health promotion is based on a systematic process to apply in the design and implementation of public health programs. Understanding what is causing unhealthy behaviors and sickness in people is important to design appropriate prevention programs and to best shape the delivery of program, drugs, vaccines, and other interventions. After identifying the health issue to address, articulating possible reasons is critical for identifying a program(s) or policies to correct it. The actual implementation of the policy needs the “buy in” of stakeholders whose support (financial, political, operational), but their active participation and commitment needs to be clear and consistent over time. Finally, any effort to improve health care needs a feedback of information about its operations and impact of problem-solving actions. You will learn:

Basic steps for development and programming of health strategies – e.g., problem definition, evidence of health issue, potential approaches.
How to involve key stakeholders
How to create feedback loop system to improve program and outcomes

Using Logic Modeling for Health Interventions
Level: Beginners/Intermediate
Format: 1 full-day workshop

Program logic modeling in public health and human services offer a description of intended efforts, input, and outcomes expected, providing a roadmap for both program planning and evaluation efforts. It helps visualize and point where modifications are necessary in strategies employed and for what purposes. Steps for constructing, refining and validating models will be presented in the class. You will learn:

How to construct a model map of what a health program is and intends to do
Ways in which logic modeling can inform strategic planning
Relationship between logic model, metrics, and evaluation

The Etiology of Health Problems and Best Practices for Services to Children and Families: This course is designed to engage participants in improving health services to children and families based on current knowledge regarding how health problems develop in children. It is designed for leaders and managers from national, regional, and local government health agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) to improve policies, programs, performance and outcomes. Participants learn about crucial new findings in healthy child development and the most important risk and protective factors related to physical and mental health problems, from bullying to obesity. They then practice how to apply this knowledge to develop custom solutions for their specific agencies and projects. This requires identifying stakeholders across agencies, training key leaders in the issues and implications for policy and practice, developing realistic objectives and strategies, and implementing performance measures and data tools. Finally, we look at procedures for assessing cost-benefits and making the case for the value of investing in children. This is a one-week course (mid-morning Monday to early afternoon Friday), offered the sixth week of each quarter (February, May, August, November).