Health is like a petrol station that will be closed

2009-11-09

Summary of a publication in Swedish.

During 2007 and 2008 the Swedish National Institute of Public Health coordinated a cooperative development project with ten local authorities. These local authorities were located in sparsely populated rural areas and/or they had a population of less than 12 500 people. The local authorities involved were Bräcke, Gullspång, Hjo, Jokkmokk, Karlsborg, Ragunda, Tanum, Töreboda, Ydre and Åsele.

The project aimed to find a way to develop public health activities in these rural communities. This occurred through a number of meetings which focused on dialogue and process building. The meetings included both content that the local authorities requested, and activities that the project coordinator felt met the needs of the project.

The report consists of three parts. The first part describes health status in rural communities, focussing on how this status has worsened over time, and what this worsening can be due to. The second part describes the resources available for public health development work in small local authorities, especially those resources that are specific to these communities. The third part gives a general description of local public health work and what is specific to small local authorities. There is also a chapter about factors that facilitate or hinder public health work in the rural communities that these authorities serve.

Apart from pure public health science (for example how to do a public health plan or local needs analysis) there are also developmental elements in the project. Certain elements lay completely outside a pure public health domain, in order to have either an individual perspective about public health planer, or to have a societal perspective focussed on local development.