A transition to an even more preventive and health‑promoting municipal activity

The municipality of Härnösand has begun a major change. It is a change or perhaps rather a transformation initiated by municipal director Lars Liljedahl.

The adjustment has been initiated to solve several problems and challenges. Firstly, 1. The problem of a changing demographic where the citizen is getting older while resources are not increasing at the same rate. Secondly, 2. A more divided and exclusive society and thirdly, 3. The challenge of employees in organizations where more tasks are added without more resources and time being allocated. Where the employee experiences that it runs faster and faster with more and more complicated tasks. Tasks that may arise as a result of 1 and 2.

The approach or strategy in the designated change is about stopping and, from a system perspective, analyzing both the citizens' underlying needs while at the same time including the work situation in the municipality's administrations. The change means looking at the citizen's underlying needs and deeply understanding which needs are important and then creating activities to preventively prevent, for example by removing risks so that accidents can be avoided, creating meeting places so that social exclusion is reduced, and so on.

An overall strategy in the transition means to move a smaller part of the resources from the operational activities and instead spend more money on evidence-based preventive health promotion measures. All to reduce and prevent the citizen from needing support and help from the public resources and instead challenge the administrations to understand, analyze and create activities to get a healthier population.

The feasibility study aims to gain a first insight into how the transition to a health-promoting work affects the organizational culture and which established working methods, methods and success factors the municipality supports this transition. The feasibility study also wants to lay the foundation for, in collaboration with the study participants, finding in-depth research questions.

In the feasibility study, the municipality of Härnösand, together with the subject quality technology at the department of quality technology and mechanical engineering, wants to investigate which working methods and methods support the change in the organization. The working method must be based on relevant research.