Importance of Sustainability Planning for SDOH Programs

Careful planning from the start of a program is necessary to maintain the resources, staff, and partnerships involved in a rural program addressing social determinants of health (SDOH). Three important areas to consider when planning for program sustainability are:

Adaptive stewardship: sharing the responsibility and ownership for achieving program outcomes.
Enduring structures: building the organization so that it can have a positive impact over time.
Sustainable resources: generating monetary and human resources to ensure the program can continue.

Sustainability planning is particularly important for SDOH programs because long-term health outcomes may take several years to achieve. For programs with long-term objectives, program activities may need to be maintained over an extended timeline to accomplish program goals. Rural programs may benefit from external coaching or technical assistance to prepare for sustainability in a way that will support activities over the long term.

To ensure long-term sustainability, rural communities may need to demonstrate the ways that program activities positively affect participants and their communities. Evaluation is a tool for documenting the value of an SDOH program and supporting its sustainability. For example, some rural health systems can measure cost savings resulting from addressing SDOH, which may help make the case for continued funding.

Other key questions to consider when planning for sustainability include:

Who are the prominent leaders and champions in the community, and how can they be involved in the program?
What anchor institutions and other assets are in the community and can help sustain change?
How will the program engage stakeholders, partners, and community members? What communication strategies and resources are critical for long-term engagement?
How can the program leverage in-kind contributions from stakeholders, partners, and the community?
How can the program manage and combine funding streams with different eligibility criteria?
How can the program promote its successes and build support from the community, funders, and policymakers?
What kinds of obstacles may the program encounter, and what are the strategies for overcoming these challenges?

Rural SDOH program leaders may benefit from additional information about engaging in sustainability planning the Rural Health Information Hub provides in topic-specific toolkits:

Resources to Learn More

A Sustainability Planning Guide for Healthy Communities
Document
Provides evidence-based approaches to help public health professionals develop, implement, and evaluate sustainable public health policy strategies. Includes examples of sustainable policy strategies in a variety of community settings.
Organization(s): National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Date: 2/2012