| |
Building on the success of last year's Heed the Sneeze colds and flu campaign, the Consumer Health Information Centre will be using its 1998 campaign to offer the public guidance on how to manage stress to positive effect.
The Consumer Health Information Centre
was set up in 1997 by the Proprietary Association of
Great Britain (PAGB) as a consumer advice service offering
independent professional advice to help improve public
understanding of common ailments. The Centre's expert
panel of doctors, nurses, consumers and pharmacists
identified stress management as a key step to improving
individuals' health and lessening the burden on healthcare
professionals in the nineties.
Often underestimated as a cause of illness
and fatigue, stress and anxiety now represent one of
the top ten conditions suffered by the UK population,
costing industry over £5 billion per year in absenteeism
and staff turnover. The focus of the campaign will be
on managing the everyday minor symptoms of stress, particularly
stress caused by lifestyle rather than by those factors
outside a person's control. The nationwide information
campaign will call on members of the public to recognise
the early signs of stress and adapt their lifestyles
to manage it to their own advantage. Consumers will
be given guidance on how to recognise their early symptoms,
know what medicines to take for relief and offered practical
tips on adapting lifestyles accordingly.
Following on from last year's successful colds and flu campaign, the nationwide media information campaign will be supported by: - a user-friendly leaflet, offering helpful tips on managing stress including self-treatment.
- a local call rate help line (0845 60 61 611) which will be available for members of the public to contact trained pharmacists for advice on medicines to help relieve the minor symptoms of stress.
- the Consumer Health Information Centre's interactive web site
"This campaign builds on the success of the 1997 Heed
the Sneeze campaign which distributed over 90,000 'Ebenezer
Sneezer's Guide to Colds and Flu' leaflets, attracted
over 1,000 visitors per week to the Consumer Health Information
Centre website and generated over 1,000 calls to the Colds
and Flu help line", says panel member Ros Meek, Royal
College of Nursing. "The Heed the Sneeze campaign proved
that consumers want to be better informed about their
own health and are now starting to ask how best to help
themselves when they get ill. We aim to bridge the gap
between consumers' ideals and their actions by offering
information that is both accessible and easy to understand
on the types of medicines available from the pharmacy,
and reassurance as to when they should manage their own
illness and when to seek further advice. |
