New Guide Offers Practical Solutions for Sustaining Evidence-Based Health Programs

Posted on: Friday 26th July 2024

We are proud to announce the release of a new practice guide aimed at helping policy makers, health practitioners and researchers sustain evidence-based health programs in real-world settings.  

Despite the initial success of many health programs, research shows that less than 20% are sustained beyond two years once initial support is withdrawn. This highlights a critical need for effective strategies to ensure long-term sustainability, maximising population health impact and justifying the substantial resources invested in these initiatives. 

The guide, developed by Associate Professor Nicole Nathan, Dr Adam Shoesmith, Dr Alix Hall and team, titled “Simple, Usable, Strategy Templates for Achieving Initiative Sustainability (SUSTAINS): A Practical Guide,” addresses this challenge by providing practical advice based on real world experience.

The guide introduces core concepts of sustainability science and offers a collection of evidence-informed resources and templates designed to help policy makers, practitioners and researchers adopt processes to: 

  1.  identify barriers that may impact on sustained program delivery; and 
  2. select, refine, and deliver strategies that support the long-term sustainment of their initiatives. 

The guide includes numerous examples that demonstrate how to complete each template, offering a practical, hands-on framework for application.  

This resource will be invaluable to those committed to improving population health outcomes through sustained health initiatives. We expect this resource to keep evolving and be refined over time.

We’d love to hear your experiences using the guide to help make it even more relevant and effective. 

We wish you the best of luck with your efforts to sustain your programs and look forward to hearing how you apply this guide in your work. 

Access the SUSTAINS guide.