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Best Practices in Health Promotion

Best practices in health promotion are “those sets of processes and activities that are consistent with health promotion values/goals/ethics, theories/beliefs, evidence, and understanding of the environment, and that are most likely to achieve health promotion goals in a given situation” (Kahan and Goodstadt, 2001).

In 1996, Michael Goodstadt and Barbara Kahan, working in collaboration with the Centre's Best Practices Work Group, took the lead in exploring the potential benefits and risks associated with taking a best practices approach to health promotion. The Best Practices Work Group was created as the result of an International Symposium on the Effectiveness of Health Promotion organized by the Centre for Health Promotion in June of 1996. From 1996 until March 2002, the Best Practices initiative received funding from Health Canada (with additional funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health in 2001-2002).

Since March 2002, Michael and Barbara have continued to work on the Best Practices initiative and the Interactive Domain Model of Best Practices — this work is self-funded. To learn about the Best Practices initiative, go to www.bestpractices-healthpromotion.com/. Companion website www.idmbestpractices.ca also includes extensive information on the Best Practices initiative; this website focuses on meeting the needs of those actively involved in the Interactive Domain Model and other best practice initiatives in Canada and worldwide.

Michael teaches a course on health promotion strategies with the University of Toronto's MHSc in Health Promotion. For information on this course, go to www.bestpractices-healthpromotion.com/strategies/. For his recommended course readings and other resources, visit www.bestpractices-healthpromotion.com/coursereadings/.

Recent Events

Recent events include a workshop entitled Best Practices at Home and Abroad, organized by Barbara Kahan and Nora Sellers of the Centre for Health Promotion and held on September 20, 2004 at Victoria University in Toronto. For a copy of the final report on this event, click here.

IDM Manual: IDM Manual for using the Interactive Domain Model approach to best practices in health promotion. Kahan, B., & Goodstadt, M. (March, 2002, 3rd edition May 2005). Toronto: Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto.

Request for Participation in IDM Follow-Up
We are conducting a follow-up of the Interactive Domain Model (IDM)  best practices approach for better health to understand how to assess  the ease and effectiveness of its application, and to gather  information for a chapter in an upcoming book. We would be delighted  to hear from you:
- if you have considered using the IDM but decided not to
- if you have used - or been influenced by - the IDM, as an individual or part of a group

The follow-up involves a written survey (about 10-15 minutes to fill out) and/or an interview (30-45 minutes). Names and identifying characteristics of individuals and organizations will be excluded unless permission to include them has been granted. For more information about participating, please visit the home page of the IDM Best Practices website at www.idmbestpractices.ca. The deadline for  responses is January 31, 2007.

Barbara Kahan
(306) 569-2094
bkahan@sasktel.net
Visit best practices websites www.idmbestpractices.ca & www.bestpractices-healthpromotion.com

If you are downloading the file as a PDF please note that you will need Acrobat Reader 5.0 in order to rotate the pages to read them on-screen.

Last Updated: 24-Nov-2008

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