MPH 505 Module 6 Program Implementation Plan Example

Making It Happen: An Implementation Plan for a Community Diabetes Prevention Program

Student Name

Master of Public Health Program, Aspen University

MPH 505: Public Health Education and Program Oversight

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Making It Happen: An Implementation Plan for a Community Diabetes Prevention Program

A well-designed program can still fail if it is poorly delivered. Implementation planning turns objectives and materials into schedules, staff roles, partnerships and budgets, and plans for keeping the program faithful to its design. This paper presents the implementation plan for the church-based lifestyle class the county is launching for Latino adults with elevated blood sugar.

Planning for Public Health Impact

The RE-AIM framework asks planners to consider five dimensions: reach, efficacy, adoption, implementation and maintenance. Its authors argued that programs are often judged only on efficacy, ignoring whether they reach the people who need them, whether organizations adopt them, whether they are delivered as intended and whether they last (Glasgow et al., 1999). The implementation plan addresses each dimension.

Staffing

The program will employ a program coordinator, a bilingual health educator and ten part-time promotoras. Each promotora will complete lifestyle coach training in the national curriculum, a 16-hour course, plus county training on screening, data collection and privacy. The health educator will supervise coaches, observe sessions and lead monthly case reviews.

Partners and Roles

Six churches will host classes and screening events and promote the program from the pulpit. Two health centers will refer patients with elevated A1C, share laboratory results with consent and offer follow-up visits. The school district will open two walking tracks three evenings a week. The Spanish-language radio station will air monthly segments. Each partner will sign a memorandum of understanding describing roles and data sharing.

Recruitment and Referral

Participants will enter through three paths: screening at churches and events, clinician referral from health centers and self-referral after hearing radio segments. Promotoras will call each eligible person within a week to explain the program and enroll them in the next cohort.

Timeline

The first year unfolds in stages.

First-Year Budget

The first-year budget totals about $410,000: $265,000 for personnel, $38,000 for training and certification, $32,000 for materials and radio, $25,000 for childcare and light meals at sessions, $20,000 for scales, activity trackers and A1C test supplies, and $30,000 for evaluation. A community translation of the lifestyle program found that group delivery through a community partner could be offered at far lower cost than the individual coaching used in the original trial (Ackermann et al., 2008).

Fidelity Monitoring

The health educator will observe one session per coach each month using a checklist of core elements: weigh-in, review of self-monitoring logs, the planned lesson, goal setting and teach-back. Coaches will complete a brief log after each session. Fidelity below 80% on the checklist will trigger coaching and a repeat observation.

Reach and Adoption

To track reach, the program will compare the characteristics of participants with those of eligible adults in the target area, looking for groups that are missing, such as men or younger adults. Adoption will be measured by the number of churches and clinics that join and stay, with a goal of adding two churches in year two.

Risk Management

Key risks include low attendance, loss of a host church, staff turnover and difficulty obtaining clinic data. Responses include text reminders and makeup sessions, backup sites at community centers, cross-training of promotoras and a data-sharing agreement signed before launch.

Maintenance

Maintenance planning begins now. The national evaluation showed that more sessions attended means more weight lost (Ely et al., 2017), so retention strategies are built into every cohort. At the organizational level, CDC recognition, insurer billing and embedding the program in health center workflows will help it survive after the grant.

Training Plan

Coach training will run in two parts. The first covers the national curriculum, behavior change techniques and group facilitation. The second, led by the county, covers screening procedures, recording data, protecting privacy, cultural humility and when to refer participants to clinical care. New coaches will co-lead two sessions with an experienced coach before leading on their own.

Communication Plan

Internal communication includes a weekly coaches' meeting and a shared calendar. Partners receive a monthly update with enrollment and attendance figures. Participants hear from coaches by text and phone. The public learns about the program through radio, church bulletins and health center waiting rooms. A clear plan keeps everyone informed and makes problems visible early.

Data Systems

The program will use a simple secure database to record screenings, enrollments, attendance, weights and activity minutes. Coaches will enter data on tablets at the end of each session. The coordinator will run monthly reports for supervision and for the evaluation team. Using the national program's data format from the start will support the application for recognition.

Community Advisory Board

The advisory board will meet every other month throughout implementation, review data and hear from participants. Its members will help solve problems, such as low attendance among men, and will advise on changes to materials and schedules. Keeping residents involved after planning preserves trust and gives the program early warning of issues staff might miss.

Quality Improvement

The program will use short improvement cycles. When monthly data show a problem, such as low attendance at one church, staff will test a small change, such as moving the class time or adding a reminder call, measure the result over a few weeks and keep changes that work. This approach turns monitoring data into steady improvement.

Participant Safety

Some participants have health conditions that affect exercise or diet. Every participant will complete a short health questionnaire, and anyone with chest pain, very high blood pressure or other warning signs will be referred to a clinician before increasing activity. Coaches will be trained to recognize these signs and to encourage gradual increases in activity.

Conclusion

The implementation plan turns the program's design into action with trained bilingual coaches, clear partner roles, a staged timeline, a realistic budget, fidelity checks and attention to every RE-AIM dimension. Careful implementation is what allows a proven intervention to produce results in a new community.

References

Ackermann, R. T., Finch, E. A., Brizendine, E., Zhou, H., & Marrero, D. G. (2008). Translating the Diabetes Prevention Program into the community: The DEPLOY pilot study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 35(4), 357-363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2008.06.035

Ely, E. K., Gruss, S. M., Luman, E. T., Gregg, E. W., Ali, M. K., Nhim, K., Rolka, D. B., & Albright, A. L. (2017). A national effort to prevent type 2 diabetes: Participant-level evaluation of CDC's National Diabetes Prevention Program. Diabetes Care, 40(10), 1331-1341. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc16-2099

Glasgow, R. E., Vogt, T. M., & Boles, S. M. (1999). Evaluating the public health impact of health promotion interventions: The RE-AIM framework. American Journal of Public Health, 89(9), 1322-1327. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.89.9.1322