Delivering health education programs: a model

The OPT/EVALUATE delivery model provides a system for applying principles of organizational management to the problems of administering health education. Whether one is a new health educator, or part of a health education team, solving operational problems calls for expertise in a variety of fields. Most health educators are not prepared for program administration functions. The article includes a diagram of the OPT/EVALUATE model and an Action Step Checklist. The checklist may be for professional self-assessment, for guiding internships and on-the-job training experiences, or for systematically coordinating a health education project. Each section of the checklist is explained in the article with resources for further reading. Individuals can adapt the OPT/EVALUATE model to their own work setting and target populations. The importance of the checklist steps will vary from project to project. Some specific steps may need to be added.