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Assessment 1 Requirements: PABCAR Intervention Report
Worth: 35%
Due: Week 7
Length: Approx. 4,000 words
Requirements:
You are required to form into groups of 4 students for this assignment.
Your group is then required to undertake an in-depth investigation and analysis of the peer-reviewed published and grey literature – using the PABCAR decision-making framework – in order to determine the most appropriate health promotion actions for a particular health issue, setting/community and target group.
Upon request, a private online forum will be set up for each group on Blackboard. This forum will have access to blog, wiki, file share, email and discussion board facilities. Only your group members will have access to your group forum. You may also choose to use other online platforms such as Google Docs, MS Office Live, EtherPad, Zoho or ThinkFree.
To do well, ensure that you allow enough time at the end of the writing process to work as a group to craft your individual contributions into a cohesive and persuasive document.
Step 1: Choose your health issue, setting/community and target group
1. A specific communicable disease, non-communicable disease, injury, risk behaviour or risk factor of public health significance (i.e. attention is paid to the health problem by public health and health promotion practitioners seeking to prevent poor health on a population-wide basis because large numbers of people are impacted or at risk). Examples include: excess alcohol consumption, illegal drug use, smoking, obesity, malnutrition, insufficient physical activity, unprotected sexual behaviour, insufficient fruit and vegetable consumption, handwashing, diarrhoea, domestic violence, road traffic injuries, falls, type 2 diabetes, HIV, STIs, malaria, Hepatitis C, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, skin cancer, colon cancer, trachoma or suicide. Consider the contributing risk behaviours and risk factors that influence the development or incidence. 2. A specific population: Australia OR another country
3. A specific setting or community:
Settings: Cities, Schools, Workplaces, Hospitals, Villages, Homes, Universities, Prisons, Markets, Islands, Community: For example, Perth suburb of Armadale, WA town of Bunbury, Western suburbs of Sydney
4. A population target group identified (and justified by you) to be at higher risk of that health issue:
For example:
• Men or women • LGBTIQ people • Infants and/or children • Prisoners
• Adolescents and/or young adults • Indigenous peoples
• Seniors (i.e. older adults/elderly people) • Refugees and/or internally displaced persons
• Commercial sex workers • Migrants
• Injecting drug users • People in a particular geographical location (e.g.
• People of low income and societal status rural, remote, urban slums)
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When you make your choice, ensure that you can find and present evidence supporting public health significance (e.g. a preventable higher incidence/prevalence compared to other population groups). Take care not to choose a health issue that is easily prevented by a vaccine universally available within that population – we are looking for an issue requiring more complex health promotion actions.
Step 2: Search the literature.
Undertake an in-depth analysis of the literature to identify that enough information exists about the health issue and the target group to enable you to undertake a PABCAR analysis.
The ‘published’ literature refers to journal articles you will find via the Curtin databases and books. The published ‘grey’ literature refers to information that has been published in a non-commercial form (e.g. government reports, organisational health promotion program evaluation reports).
If you cannot find sufficient information, you may need to make some adjustments to your topic so that you can still use the information that you have already gathered (e.g. change age group or community/country of interest).
You are required to locate, select and clearly present relevant information from a range of current peerreviewed and reputable sources - journal articles, books and reports from reputable university, government or international organisations. Find the most current information on that issue that you can. Ensure that you are not basing your argument on information that was later disproven or moderated after further research or program evaluations. Most of your references would thus be published within the last 10 years. It is possible for you to cite older information if you find early studies that were never repeated/republished once a fundamental idea was proven or original publications of theoretical or conceptual models that form the basis of current public health practice. It is expected that you will source your information from at least 20 appropriate sources. Take care not to overuse websites (use no more than 4) and to only use academically credible websites. Note that, if you have downloaded a report as a PDF document from a reputable website, for example WHO or AIHW, it counts as a report rather than a website.
Step 3: Work through the PABCAR framework stages.
See the feedback guide (i.e. rubric) and ensure that the word limit is divided among the sections so that it reflects the weighting given to that section. In each section of the assignment, ensure that you discuss the following:
Brief Introduction
• This serves to introduce the purpose and organisation clearly for the reader
• Set the context by stating the chosen public health issue, statistics, community/setting & population group
1. What is the Problem & is it significant?
• State why this problem exists
• Clearly identify partners and stakeholders
• Description of how the problem manifests in community
• Information about the target group (statistics & social context)
• Cost to community
• Community perceptions of problem & its impact on them
2. Is it Amenable to change?
• Effects of measures introduced in other communities
• Evidence of changeability
• If no evidence of changeability, discuss how might this be increased
3. Are the intervention’s Benefits greater than Costs?
• Impact on target group & community
• Ethical considerations (e.g. Paternalistic? Beneficence/ Autonomy? Individual rights?)
• Economic benefits & costs
• Efficacy of previous interventions
• Possible social consequences (e.g. unintended consequences, changes to social structures & processes)
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4. Is there an Acceptance for the Intervention?
• Consider positive & negative attitudes (e.g. target group, community, politicians & industry)
• Outline any advocacy actions required
5. What actions are Recommended?
• What health promotion actions are most likely to create the desired change?
• These must be based on the evidence discussion presented in the previous stages
• Make recommendations as to the best course of health promotion action. Discuss which measurable goals, strategies, methods and activities that are likely to be the most appropriate and effective in the chosen community/setting with that particular health issue and target group.
• These recommendations need to flow logically on from your PABCAR framework analysis – i.e.
they are the outcome of your literature review and analysis and are clearly based on the evidence you have presented.
• No formal written conclusion is required as the recommendations will serve the purpose of concluding the document
Step 4: Identify information gaps & recommend community & stakeholder engagement strategies.
PABCAR requires that health promotion and public health practitioners engage with community and other stakeholders to find out about their perceptions and attitudes. During your literature research, it is possible that you will uncover ‘gaps’ in what has been published about their perceptions and attitudes. In this instance, it is expected that you will briefly outline a community engagement plan to find out the information required. A thoughtful and well written engagement plan will score as well as if the information had been available to you in the literature. Please cite sources for the strategies you suggest (e.g. the textbook, journal articles).
Identify the gaps in the literature during stages 1 to 4 by acknowledging the limitations of the literature. Then explore the engagement strategies you suggest in the recommendations section. The health promotion actions you recommend based on the literature should be presented as ‘suggested’ pending confirmation and refinement after the recommended community and stakeholder engagement activities.
Report Presentation:
Please summarise and present information in prose. DO NOT include any graphs, tables or flowcharts.
Present your report in accordance with the requirements described in the Guide to Assignment Presentation for Postgraduate Pubic Health Courses (see Assessments in Blackboard for this document). You are expected to follow the guidelines on the writing style recommended by the guide and to write using appropriate, non-discriminatory language. Submit your paper with a title page with declaration, contents page, numbered headings and subheadings and a reference page. Present your citations (i.e. in-text references) and reference list in APA style.
Note that the 4,000 word count is NOT to include the title page, contents page, or reference pages but the word count DOES include in-text referencing (i.e. author-date citations).
Marking criteria and feedback guide:
Carefully read the feedback guide (i.e. rubric) under Assessments in Blackboard to ensure you have met the required criteria before submission. Contact your tutor if you have any queries.
Peer Review Process:
Your teamwork during the process of developing and presenting this assignment will be subject to peer review. Each group member is required to assess the contributions made by themselves and the other members in producing the PABCAR report.
The form to use for peer review is to be found in the PABCAR folder in Assessments in Blackboard. This submitted form is worth no marks but is a way for you to provide feedback on the team work process undertaken. If you are all agreed, you may submit one form as a group. This does not prevent any group member submitting a form themselves. Groups may also choose to submit individual forms, reporting on the group process from their own point of view.
If there are major discrepancies in the rankings assigned to group members, the group members will be contacted by the Unit Coordinator to negotiate appropriate marks. If the group ranking is consistent then it may be used to scale the marks. Due consideration needs to be given if you are going to differentiate between individuals.
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