Environmental health officers have long used education and community engagement to support improved health outcomes; however, health promotion activities are often delivered opportunistically, vary between regions, and can be difficult to sustain over time. In the Northern Territory, environmental health issues associated with overcrowded housing, hygiene, food safety and healthy living practices continue to contribute to preventable disease burden, particularly in Aboriginal communities. Recognising these challenges, NT Health Environmental Health Operations initiated a 12-month project to reinvigorate its health promotion program and develop a structured approach to deliver across urban, rural and remote settings. It also aimed to support a relatively inexperienced workforce especially trainees.
Priority areas for the program include hygiene, food safety, skin health and healthy homes, with a particular focus on Aboriginal communities and children in their formative years. Established and successful resources such as the No Germs on Me campaign continue to be utilised and expanded into a model that combines community outreach, stakeholder capacity-building, train-the-trainer approaches, educational resources, local partnerships and media engagement.
A key feature of the program is the emphasis on building local capability and supporting organisations to deliver health promotion messages themselves, rather than relying solely on direct service delivery. Partnerships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, health services, education providers, local government and community groups are used to strengthen reach, cultural relevance and sustainability. The program also incorporates continuous quality improvement principles, workforce development, evaluation mechanisms and a co-ordinated approach to resource management to support consistent delivery across the Territory.
Alongside program development, significant effort has been directed towards reviewing, improving and expanding health promotion resources. This has included identifying opportunities to better utilise existing resources, develop new materials, and increase dissemination through partner organisations to improve the reach, consistency and longevity of environmental health messaging.
This presentation will outline the rationale, development process and implementation of the program and explore how environmental health services can create sustainable health promotion systems that remain effective despite workforce, resource and geographic challenges. It will also reflect on key lessons learned during the redevelopment process, including governance, workforce engagement, resource development, stakeholder partnerships and evaluation.