Working with CAMH, using the MAN model definition of Community Health Promotion, will benefit your community and/or workplace.

Our whole project philosophy is based on identifying community/client needs and then providing a program that addresses those needs, in the best interests of the participants.

You can read all about it below or download a word document or pdf file.

Having done that please call us to make a change to your community

HOW THE "MAN MODEL" WORKS IN YOUR COMMUNITY

• Introduction
• What is the MAN Model?
• How our Program Works
• Our program sets a community agenda
• Evaluation
• Experience of CAMH
• Draft Costings 

Introduction

The MAN model provides a unique system of  intervention programs for communities and professional training and personal development for health workers. The implementation of this system provides resources that have a long-term impact on the way a variety of other health programs may be developed.

The implementation of a MAN model system offers communities an opportunity to develop a:

• Men's health program (min. 12 months)
• Professional development program for health practitioners
• Lifeskills program for adolescents (years 9-11 min.12 mths)
• Workplace–based Health Program
• MAN…Being a Father parenting course
• Farm safety program with local primary schools in the region

We support communities and enable them to address their community needs and develop strong collaborative partnerships between service providers. A key result of our work is the development of community ownership of the programs. Aspects of this ownership are indicated by:

• Wider acceptance
• Recognition by women of the importance of men's health
• Support and acceptance by women in the community
• Long-term involvement
• Capacity building
• Increased community awareness
• Increased community participation and utilisation rates of health services

We also regard Workplaces as a community of people, within the wider community, and provide our services based on the community model.

What is the MAN Model?

The MAN model is a model of disease prevention and health promotion that seeks to improve and create pathways for men and adolescents to better access the Health Care System. It is based on an understanding of the factors that are important to men and adolescents, in the way they relate and make decisions, and has two main components that work together.

Firstly, it raises the awareness of men and adolescents about their health status, and then designs a program that addresses the issues that they have identified as being most important.

Secondly, it equips health care providers, primary GPs and CHNs to better respond to the needs of men and adolescents in the delivery of their services.

It accomplishes this by:

• Identifying health issues important to men and raising awareness about the consequences of specific issues that have a high morbidity or result in high mortality (usually, but not exclusively in the context of Men's Health Nights).
• Developing health programs in partnership with local health providers and the local community to address identified issues.
• Equipping local health providers, especially GP's to:
• Have a better understanding of men and adolescents and how they can related to them better
• Developing a physical environment in their Practice that is welcoming, and to provide opportunities in male environments (such as the workplace) that help to meet men's needs

Our professional Development Program for GPs attracts Continuing Medical Education (CME) points.

• Providing an evaluation framework that identifies;
• Epidemiological data within local communities;
• client awareness of health issues and their own health status (pre-test questionnaires);
• areas where programs may be improved;
• where further programs may be developed;
• the success of each program in raising awareness and meeting consumer needs and its impact on the provision of health services in local communities over time (post-test questionnaire and health provider participation rates).
• Programs that have utilised this model in their design include:
• Kidsafe on the Farm program in primary schools (school children and their parents)
• ASK - Lifeskills Program for Adolescents (targeting boys and girls)
• Workplace Health Program (both men and women)
• Parenting course for men - MAN…. Being a Father
• Heart of the Grampians, Cardiovascular Disease program (targeting the general community, families and  workplaces).

Large numbers of men have become involved in the delivery of programs based on this model over time and this has had a significant impact on the expectations for health care within the local communities across Australia (approximately 5,500 men). This is demonstrated by the significant increase in male participation rates at local GP practices, Community Health Centres, and ongoing health sessions developed by programs, and provides some limited practical verification of Syme's (1997) observations.

How our Program Works

There have been few programs that have effectively enabled at risk communities to take responsibility for their own health outcomes in a way that develops local community partnerships, ownership, and capacity building.

The MAN system initially provides information packages to communities through:

• Division of General Practice
• Community Health Services
• Nursing Services
• Local/State Government Health Departments
• Workplaces
• Interested Organizations

Communities/Workplaces provide us with a budget for the funds that they already have available, and we provide them with program information and a proposed program structure to meet their projected program needs. All communities with which we have worked have raised or provided a proportion of the total funds required for the successful delivery of that program.

The effectiveness of funding resources are maximized when communities are required to raise or provide funds themselves so that the agreed program may be effectively implemented. Community involvement and ownership guarantees a far better result into the long term if the community has contributed financially to it and recognizes that it is worthwhile, achievable and needed within their community.

The MAN intervention system enables local communities to have local ownership and as a result it develops a higher capacity for those communities to sustain any short-term benefits into the long term.

We utilise a best practice model based on community needs. Feedback from our surveys of different rural communities have all indicated that:

• Rural communities express: "it's about time our men were offered this opportunity"
• Rural women see their men/boys as disadvantaged – they embrace this opportunity and encourage their partners to participate.

As a result much of our promotion within a community is targeted to women and actively seeks to involve them in the development of the program.

We regard Workplaces as a community and provide services that meet the needs of men and women within their work environment.

Our program sets a community agenda.

• Hold a community meeting to discuss plans and potential
• Organize a forum for men – a community meeting of men
• Conduct an extensive questionnaire based around their GP and community health infrastructure and how it does or does not meet the needs of men in the community
• Facilitate a collaborative approach of health services to meet the needs of men based on the response from the assessment questionnaire.
• Development of ongoing programs with the support of local Service Clubs and organisations, community health services, schools, and general community.

Successful programs conducted by rural communities encourage other neighbouring rural communities to also take the initiative in addressing the health issues faced by their men with less risk of failure in implementing a program.

Our objectives for a community /workplace include:

• To deliver an intervention system that ensures the relevance and effectiveness of programs to those people and sub-groups being targeted within each rural community.
• To assess the social and health concerns of a community as a context in which given health issues may be effectively addressed.
• To identify and facilitate partnerships between health practitioners and the community they serve.
• Train local health practitioners in skills that enable them to be more responsive to the health issues a local rural community identifies as priorities.
• Teach men in the community how to utilise the existing health service infrastructure more effectively
• To develop local resources that can be utilised by rural communities across Australia.
• Evaluate the impact the delivery an effective intervention system has on the health status of rural communities across Australia in the long term.

Evaluation

The intervention model that will be evaluated in partnership with local universities will be based on the components of program delivery that have been identified. These components include:

• Using and developing existing health networks and key stakeholders within a local community to market health promotion issues.
• Facilitating relationships between health practitioners and their clientele by involving those groups in a process that develops mutual contact, respect and care.
• Working with at risk groups in the community to deliver information in an accessible, appropriate and relevant way.
• Providing practical follow up in the form of health sessions that address identified needs.
• Developing a skills program for health practitioners in cardiovascular disease.
• Consolidating a package of resources and materials that ensures the portability and application of this model to any rural community.
• Dissemination of the results in an ongoing way through local media in order to maintain the presence and relevance of issues that are being addressed with the local community and identified target populations.

The goal of an action research project is to create a change in practice as a product of developing and refining the existing theory that is the basis for that practice.

CAMH in association with local universities will evaluate each phase of the program.

Using existing networks in the community has been identified as important for facilitating the implementation of additional health initiatives and for guiding sustained trust and confidence in the process (Holter & Schwartz-Barcott, 1993 pp. 298-304).

The quality and nature of the initial interaction between participants and practitioners will be assessed. In initial gathering of data efforts will be made to access men and women in age groups which reflect the community age profile. Participants will be drawn from factories, workplaces, social service, secondary colleges and sporting groups.

Pre test questionnaires will be utilized to assess the health and social issues of most importance to a local community. These will be conducted at community meetings that inform and raise the awareness of participants. These will be compared to post test  questionnaire data collected after the intervention system has been implemented.

This process will have important implications for the sustained success of community based programs after funding is discontinued.

We will document the process of issue identification and priority setting, as this process of change and ownership will provide the basis for strategies specific to the population's needs and for eventual evaluation of the outcomes of the project as a whole.

Other processes will include:

• Enabling selected locations to share their experience and information with a number of other isolated rural communities in geographical proximity to them resulting in the seeding of new men's health initiatives. Rural Victoria is a formidable example of this.
• Production of a final report that will offer recommendations for the development of men's health policy.

Experience of CAMH

The Centre for Advancement of Men's Health over the last three years has been committed to a best practice model of health promotion in furthering opportunities for men to better access the health care system in their local environment. This has involved encouraging them to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing in addition to training and equipping the local health system to understand the  needs of men better and respond to them in more appropriate ways. A product of this initiative has been the development of a CME approved training course for General Practitioners.

The expertise gained over this time has been recognised by both National and State Governments in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, and Northern Territory. Our work has involved programs with older men, men in workplaces, adolescents in schools, and General Practitioners.

CAMH has also presented at conferences throughout Australia. These include:

• 7th National Rural Health Conference Hobart 2003
• 7th General Practitioners Conference Homebush Bay Sydney May 2002
• 4th National Men & Boys Conference Sept 2001 Hawkesbury Sydney
• 6th National Rural Health Conference, March 2001, Canberra
• 2^nd International Primary Health Care Conference in April 2000.
• Second International Primary Health Care Conference Melbourne 2000
• Clinical Skills for GP's Conference – Newcastle University-1999
• National Men's Health Confernce – Alice Springs - 1999
• Working with Boys Conference – Newcastle University –1999
• National Rural Public Health Conference - Adelaide – March 1999
• Tasmanian Men's Health Conference - Tasmania - November 1998
• National Forum, Men and Family Relationships - Canberra - 10-11 June 1998
• 2^nd National Men's Health Conference - Western Australia - 1997
• House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs - Canberra - 1997
• National Rural Public Health Forum - Adelaide - 1997
  

CAMH has actively developed programs in local communities across Victoria and four other States of Australia. Directly, and indirectly, through our Community Resource Publications, it is estimated that over the last 3 years the MAN Model framework has created an opportunity for over 8000 men to address issues of their health.

The MAN system is adaptable and has offered rural communities a flexibility of application to suit their needs. A variety of strategies have been developed that include workplace-based health forums; initiatives with schools to access adolescents; upskilling and training of GPs and other health practitioners', our rural community project that addresses Cardiovascular Disease throughout the Grampians Region, and the establishment of men's parenting courses. These initiatives are effective and again highlight the flexibility and success of our organisation to offer appropriate technical and specialist advice to produce outcomes for specific communities.

 If you have an interest in Mens and Adolescents Health then we encourage you to ORDER our resource "Good Medicine for Men" Community Resource Kit

Just by filling out the ORDER FORM  or

CONTACT CAMH

 DRAFT COSTS

Cost analysis for Men's Health Nights /Adolescents Program conducted concurrently by the Centre for Advancement of Men's Health in collaboration with local organizations. This initial Program Development sets up a project for up to 12 months with resources training and facilitation. Long term benefits and program sustainability are achieved beyond 12 months based on the organisations structure.

 Men's Health Night/Program Package…….
can include Adolescents Program

These figures are based on successful Men's Health Nights, where the project was funded with sponsorship, community or semi-government funding etc. The program can include the development of the Lifeskills Program for Adolescents in Schools

Lead time for a night is usually about 8 weeks to complete the task with the support of a Project Worker 1-2 days per week.

 Sample Costs Only - Click here for order form