TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementing participatory intervention and research in communities
T2 - Lessons from the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project in Canada
AU - Potvin, Louise
AU - Cargo, Margaret
AU - McComber, Alex M.
AU - Delormier, Treena
AU - Macaulay, Ann C.
PY - 2003/3/1
Y1 - 2003/3/1
N2 - Community public health interventions based on citizen and community participation are increasingly discussed as promising avenues for the reduction of health inequalities and the promotion of social justice. However, very few authors have provided explicit principles and guidelines for planning and implementing such interventions, especially when they are linked with research. Traditional approaches to public health programming emphasise expert knowledge, advanced detailed planning, and the separation of research from intervention. Despite the usefulness of these approaches for evaluating targeted narrow-focused interventions, they may not be appropriate in community health promotion, especially in Aboriginal communities. Using the experience of the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project, in Canada, this paper elaborates four principles as basic components for an implementation model of community programmes. The principles are: (1) the integration of community people and researchers as equal partners in every phase of the project, (2) the structural and functional integration of the intervention and evaluation research components, (3) having a flexible agenda responsive to demands from the broader environment, and (4) the creation of a project that represents learning opportunities for all those involved. The emerging implementation model for community interventions, as exemplified by this project, is one that conceives a programme as a dynamic social space, the contours and vision of which are defined through an ongoing negotiation process.
AB - Community public health interventions based on citizen and community participation are increasingly discussed as promising avenues for the reduction of health inequalities and the promotion of social justice. However, very few authors have provided explicit principles and guidelines for planning and implementing such interventions, especially when they are linked with research. Traditional approaches to public health programming emphasise expert knowledge, advanced detailed planning, and the separation of research from intervention. Despite the usefulness of these approaches for evaluating targeted narrow-focused interventions, they may not be appropriate in community health promotion, especially in Aboriginal communities. Using the experience of the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project, in Canada, this paper elaborates four principles as basic components for an implementation model of community programmes. The principles are: (1) the integration of community people and researchers as equal partners in every phase of the project, (2) the structural and functional integration of the intervention and evaluation research components, (3) having a flexible agenda responsive to demands from the broader environment, and (4) the creation of a project that represents learning opportunities for all those involved. The emerging implementation model for community interventions, as exemplified by this project, is one that conceives a programme as a dynamic social space, the contours and vision of which are defined through an ongoing negotiation process.
KW - Canada
KW - Community health promotion
KW - Diabetes prevention
KW - Participatory research
KW - Programme implementation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037367192&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0277-9536(02)00129-6
DO - 10.1016/S0277-9536(02)00129-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 12600366
AN - SCOPUS:0037367192
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 56
SP - 1295
EP - 1305
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 6
ER -