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Letters to the Editor
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Public health campaigns
Learning by experience
From Ms V. Kernick
Running public health campaigns is not quite a piece of cake, but we have
learnt a lot after the first one. We wanted to link our community pharmacy
public health campaigns to the needs of our local population. This was
achieved in two ways: first, we got pharmacists to identify their interests
and, secondly, we linked the campaign to disease areas identified in the
local health needs assessment, which were higher than the national average.
The public health team were invited to attend a pharmacy forum meeting
to discuss the health needs assessment and this was followed by group discussion
to agree a programme for future campaigns.
The pharmacists agreed to put together a “cancer calendar”,
which could link into the national agenda, set out in the Department of
Health’s health events programme. With the advent of the new community
pharmacy contract we were unrealistically enthusiastic about the programme.
Reality soon set in and to date we have only run two campaigns, with a
third planned before April.
The first was on sun awareness and skin cancer, but there were problems.
We failed to engage the media in raising awareness that information was
available at local pharmacies. As chance would have it they ran various
stories about people whose lives had been touched by melanoma, but did
not add that advice could be given in pharmacies. This resulted in limiting
a potential target audience.
There were also difficulties with co-ordinating materials and communication
between teams in the primary care trusts. We underestimated the time needed
to plan the campaign and wait for delivery of leaflets. This resulted in
a rather hasty circulation of materials with little briefing for pharmacy
staff about messages we were trying to get across to the public. And the
week we chose to evaluate the numbers of people receiving advice was the
one week in Devon when the sun did not appear at all.
From the pharmacy perspective some pharmacies thought that they had to
extend their role even further without any additional resources. Their
autonomy was reduced, because the PCT is required to identify the campaigns
and provide materials. Some felt constrained by the requirements of maintaining
corporate identity; others had little space for displays or leaflets.
So changes had to be made. Preparation time and planning needed to be increased
and we needed to invest in brief intervention training. We needed to engage
the media in a much more active way and we needed to consider the financial
resources implication in this cash-strapped NHS.
The first campaign turned out to be a steep learning curve but, on reflection,
the weaknesses have turned full circle and we had a much more successful
campaign second time around. For the second campaign we chose to support
the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign. By tapping into a national campaign
we had a lot more media exposure. Posters and leaflets were ordered well
in advance and members of the medicines management team delivered materials
so that target audiences for the different types of leaflets could be explained.
The method of evaluation was clearly discussed and displays considered.
Brief intervention training was offered and the campaign went better from
the pharmacist’s point of view.
Vicky Kernick
Medicines Management Facilitator
Exeter Primary Care Trust |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal