Meth and Gays: What’s Next?
The Crystal Breaks campaign, launched by the Crystal Meth Task Force during Northalsted Market Days, is not the only way the city will tackle the meth issue, Pickett said, as he also mentioned Project Crystal Prevention ( CRYSP ), a five-year prevention project to combat methamphetamine use and high-risk sex in the GLBT community… The project’s goal is to increase community knowledge of the connections between meth use, high-risk sex and Internet use, as well as the link between crystal usage and HIV/STDs.
CRYSP will include educational and social marketing initiatives, such as Internet outreach, to address the effects of using crystal and advocate for services and policies
Report Links Cannabis to Mental Illness
A new report from the Mental Health Council [Australia] has found the use of cannabis increases young people's risk of suffering mental illness.
The report recommends federal, state and territory governments work together to create a social marketing campaign to warn people of the risks.
Former Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer launched the report this morning and says there are three key findings.
"Cannabis use increases young people's risk of mental illness, particularly those with a family history of psychosis," he said.
"Cannabis use makes almost any mental illness worse."
"Cannabis use is associated with other adverse outcomes like poor education and poor employment outcomes."
DoH Ad Strategy Requires 'Fundamental' Changes
A report by the National Social Marketing Centre, commissioned by the Department of Health [DoH; United Kingdom], has proposed sweeping changes to the department's communications. These would have far-reaching implications for the way the government tackles issues such as obesity, smoking and alcohol abuse…
Key proposals outlined in the report include a shift of focus onto long-term strategies to change behaviour, and the development of more partnerships with the private sector to help deliver targets…
Other recommendations in the report include the implementation of greater co-ordination across DoH activities, and of consumer-behaviour measures to assess the success of campaigns. It also suggested that the COI set up a dedicated social marketing roster.
Education Department Stands Fast On Limiting Students' Milk Choices
Standing by their decision to limit milk choices in school cafeterias despite a 10% drop in consumption, [New York City] school officials say they are more concerned about diabetes than calcium deficiency.
Critics worry that children's calcium intake is suffering as a result of the milk choice cutbacks. Council Member William de Blasio called the 10% consumption drop "drastic" and demanded that the education department reverse the policy…
Mr. de Blasio and other milk advocates are calling on the schools to offer 1% chocolate milk and other flavored milks such as strawberry and vanilla throughout the week at every school. They said they are worried thirsty children who don't like the milk options are turning more often to soda and other sugary beverages, possibly exacerbating the problem of obesity and diabetes instead of mitigating it…
Mr. Berkowitz said the department would continue to monitor milk consumption and that he expected the numbers to turn around as education and social marketing campaigns promoting healthy milk take hold among city children.
Nigeria: In Vanguard of Healthy Living for Nigerians
For over 20 years since it was established in 1985, the Society for Family Health (SFH) has impacted on the lives of Nigerians in many ways through a vibrant and aggressive social marketing strategy. It is an unusual non-governmental organisation working in the area of public health in the country with uncommon expertise and commitment…
He said social marketing is usually targeted at people on low incomes and it consists of three main activities.
According to him, these include research to identify the factors that create barriers to healthy behaviour and assist in the design of interventions to overcome such barriers; Communication to motivate and build necessary skills to allow people to adopt healthy behaviours ; and Distribution of a wide range of high quality healthcare products to all parts of the country, which are sold at affordable prices through a variety of local outlets.
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