Glue ear awareness campaign
Deafness Research UK wished to create a greater awareness amongst parents of the existence of, signs, symptoms and coping strategies for middle ear infections and glue ear in children. GlaxoSmithKline kindly agreed to support such a campaign by providing an educational grant for this purpose.
It was decided that the awareness campaign should take the form of leaflets aimed at parents which should be available in GP surgeries across the UK.
Leaflets named Ear infections and glue ear in children, a guide for families were compiled, written and designed by Professor Mark Haggard MA PhD HFRCS Edin HMFPHM FMedSci CBE (Director, MRC ESS Team, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge), Dr Ian Williamson MB, ChB, MD, FRCS(Ed), FRCGP (Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton School of Medicine), and Geraldine Oliver (Head of Information at Deafness Research UK).
Content was designed to be informative and easily understandable, with contact details provided if further information was required.
120,000 leaflets were distributed to 6000 GP surgeries throughout the UK by Waiting Room Information Services (IDS UK Healthcare Marketing). Leaflets were present in GP surgeries from 1st January 2009 – 31st March 2009. The leaflets were all displayed in GP waiting rooms in a wall mounted multi-pocketed leaflet display rack from which patients could self-select the ones of interest to them.
