Using the PAHO Guide for
Documenting Health
Promotion Initiatives
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
What is Health Promotion?
• Health promotion is “a process of enabling people to
increase control over their health.”
• Health promotion is a way of thinking and working that
considers the continual advancement and maintenance of
individual and population health to be integral to the
functioning of a community.
• Health promotion focuses on the social determinants of
health as well as on specific health issues.
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
What is Health Promotion?
(continued)
Health promotion is
• Population based
• Participatory
• Intersectoral
• Context-sensitive
• Multi-level
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
What is the PAHO Guide for Documenting
Health Promotion Initiatives?
• The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
Documentation Guide’s primary purpose is to create a
simple, standard format to help support documentation
of health promotion initiatives.
• The Guide is a seven-part questionnaire, asking for
information about your effort.
• The Documentation Guide helps create a record of the
entire health promotion effort – the process of planning,
designing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining it.
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
Why should you use the guide?
• To contribute to a data base that will advance the field
of health promotion.
• To connect with others in the field, both in your own
and other countries.
• To empower participants in your initiative, and engage
them in learning new skills by involving them in data
collection through participatory action research.
• To help you better understand your strengths and
pinpoint areas to improve, making your work more
effective through a careful analysis of your effort.
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
Why should you use the guide?
(continued)
• To get a new perspective on your effort, and come up with new
ideas.
• To describe the accomplishments of your effort and raise your
profile in the community and with funders and other
supporters.
• To help ensure that health promotion becomes integral to the
idea of community health.
• You’ll get your work published on the PAHO website, and
perhaps in an international journal as well.
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
Who should use the guide?
Any individual, group, or institution conducting an initiative
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for the promotion of health or healthy communities in the
Americas, including:
NGOs (non-governmental organizations) or CBOs
(community-based organizations) engaged in health and
human service work.
Local, state, or national health or human service agencies.
Ministries or departments of public health at all levels.
Community health activists.
Healthy community initiatives.
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
Who should use the guide?
(continued)
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Faith communities.
Health Impact Assessment teams.
Environmental groups.
Individuals or organizations working to provide affordable
housing for marginalized individuals and families, including
those who are homeless.
Those working to change environmental conditions (help
people gain access to clean drinking water, etc.) to eradicate
disease.
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas
How do you use the Guide?
Answer the questions and fill out the charts, thinking carefully about
each.
Use the resulting description to:
 Submit to PAHO, in order to contribute to the documentation of
health promotion efforts in the Americas.
 Gain recognition and credibility in the field.
 Inform the community or region about your work.
 Analyze your program, determining where changes need to be made,
what areas should be emphasized and strengthened, and where
additional resources are needed.
 Pass on what you have learned – about both what works and what
doesn’t – to others who can then replicate (reproduce) your work.
 Present a successful effort as an example of a best practice or process.
 Convince funders of the effectiveness or potential of your work.
Copyright © 2014 by The University of Kansas