The HEPRO Toolkit is finally ready and available from the Heproforum website. Consisting of one printed and one electronic part, it provides a thorough guide to a sustainable health planning process.

The HEPRO project was running as a public health project in 2005-2008 and was
part-financed by EU. The national Healthy Cities networks in the Baltic Sea Region were initiative-takers and the World Health Organization professionally supported HEPRO. 32 partners from 8 countries in the Baltic Sea Region participated in the project.

Among the many great results from the HEPRO project are the HEPRO planning model, the HEPRO survey model, a questionnaire that was answered by 33000 respondents in the Baltic Sea Region, an interactive webpage, a database of results for future research purposes, and the HEPRO Toolkit.

–  We are proud to have achieved such great results, and hope that the toolkit will both inform and inspire towards the HEPRO goal, which is increased focus on health and well-being in the Baltic Sea Region, says project manager Mr Arvid Wangberg.

The HEPRO toolkit consists of one printed publication and one electronic part found on www.heproforum.net. The first part focuses on some important elements that should be implemented in a quality-assured population health planning process. The online part contains the results achieved in the project, sorted under the headings HEPRO Planning Tools, EUROHEPRO 2006 – 2008 and Dissemination of Results.

–  Having one section of the toolkit online is advantageous for obvious reasons. In addition to the fact that is becomes easily available, this arrangement enables us to continuously update the toolkit with new knowledge, says Mr Wangberg.

The aim of the HEPRO toolkit has not been to provide a comprehensive analysis of the field of health planning. The printed booklet is only meant to be a brief overview of the covered subjects, and refers to the website and to the specialist literature for further reading. Mr Wangberg points out that the toolkit is based on knowledge gathered in the HEPRO project and from the WHO Healthy Cities movement.

– However, we also found it important to pass on knowledge about health planning done elsewhere. A substantial amount of the printed part is therefore adopted from material published by the US Public Health Foundation and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in Ontario, Canada.

The toolkit covers subjects like the HEPRO planning circle, population health planning, important considerations in a health planning process, as well as communication and marketing issues related to health planning. The chapters are illustrated with practical examples from the partners in the HEPRO project.

HEPRO has been labelled by WHO as an innovative, dynamic and successful project.

– The knowledge produced by HEPRO and contained in the toolkit will be a valuable resource of practical know-how and lessons. It has provided a foundation that we can use to progress in terms of health and well-being in both the Baltic Sea Region and beyond. In fact, our new project called Dialog partly builds on the results and experiences from HEPRO, Mr Wangberg concludes.

Click here to go to the HEPRO Toolkit