Stakeholders' perceptions of programme sustainability: Findings from a community-based fall prevention programme

Objectives: Sustainability of health promotion and injury prevention programmes is a goal of practitioners and an increasingly common requirement of funding bodies. However, less is known about the views held by individual stakeholders involved in such programmes regarding their perceptions of facilitators and barriers to achieving sustainability. This paper aims to share the perceptions of programme sustainability held by key stakeholders involved in a community-based fall prevention programme in three Ontario demonstration communities in Canada. Study design: A qualitative case study research design. Method: A holistic multiple case study method was employed. In total, 45 stakeholders involved in various aspects of the project participated from three demonstration sites. Stakeholders' perceptions were gathered on the individual actions they took in an effort to promote sustainability, and the barriers they perceived as preventing or limiting sustainability. Results: Stakeholders reported taking a number of actions to aid programme sustainability, with some actions deemed to be more functional in aiding sustainability than others. Common actions reported by stakeholders included partnership formation, networking and increasing community capacity. Stakeholders also perceived a number of barriers to achieving sustainability, including insufficient human and financial resources, lack of coordination and buy-in, heavy reliance on volunteers and an inability to mobilize physicians. Stakeholders' perceptions of sustainability were used to develop recommendations for sustainability for both communities and funding bodies. Conclusion: The views and experiences shared by the stakeholders in this project can serve as lessons learnt to aid in the sustainability of other health promotion and injury prevention programmes in the future. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Royal Society for Public Health. All rights reserved.