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Report Summary
The overall aim of this project was to develop champions for a public health and health promotion perspective amongst clinicians and senior management in Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) in the three District Health Boards (DHBs) in the Auckland region, by organising a series of five training workshops (2 – 4 hours each) designed to promote team learning. These workshops would be promoted to ‘grassroots’ clinicians along with those in management or governance in the PHOs, and would also involve the PHOs health promotion advisors. By increasing understanding, it was hoped to increase support for health promotion and the wider public health approach in PHOs, and ensure that health promotion workers and clinicians in PHOs do not operate within disengaged silos.
This report outlines the results of Stage One of the project, entailing consultation with key stakeholders (18 PHOs, the three DHBs and Ministry of Health) to investigate support for, and potential barriers to, the successful implementation of such workshops.
Outcome of consultation
In considering potential barriers to the implementation of the proposed workshops, significant concerns related to wider issues about public health and health promotion in PHOs were raised, which most of those interviewed believe will impact on any education/workforce development proposed, and therefore need to be addressed first.
They believe that initiatives to clarify shared working definitions and expectations of PHOs in relation to their implementation of the primary care strategy, population health, health promotion and public health are needed with some urgency.
Thereafter, workforce development/education based on these clarified understandings would then be appropriate at a number of levels across the wider PHO setting, with management/ governance level understanding, both in PHOs and DHBs, being a first priority.
It is recognised that the thoughts reflected are those of people working at the coalface of PHO implementation in the Auckland region, and will subsequently need to be reviewed in light of experience and planning at a national level. Thus, although the intent of Stage Two to increase support for health promotion and the wider public health approach in PHOs was acknowledged by most as necessary and important, it is not felt to be appropriate to continue with the development of the proposed workshops as initially conceived, to be delivered in early 2005, at this point in time.
Recommendations
There are essentially two sets of recommendations in this report. The first is a suggested way forward based on ideas given by those in PHOs to address the concerns they raised as barriers to the current proposal being successful. This way forward is in line with similar views from DHB representatives, and is outlined in more detail in the body of this document. A strengths-based approach, building on the assets offered by all those involved in the sector, is seen to be fundamental to progress.
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