Determining what works

The PHA is committed to being evidence-driven and a key role of Health Intelligence is to conduct research to inform programme direction, review the evidence for particular approaches or interventions and to evaluate, or advise on evaluating, specific interventions or projects.

Recent examples include the evidence reviews on School food: top marks. A summary report on food in schools research in Northern Ireland, on teenage pregnancy and on smoking interventions.

Current evaluations include:

- Lifeline – the suicide crisis helpline service;
- evaluation of a project to maximise access to services grants and benefits in disadvantaged rural areas;
- evaluation of training programmes such as ASIST – suicide intervention skills training;
- evaluation of public information campaigns and evaluation of a breastfeeding DVD for new mothers.