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Welcome to the first HSC Chat Sheet for 2009. Read on to hear all about what's been happening and what's coming up in the next few months.
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Tobacco Control
We’ve hit the ground running in tobacco control in 2009, with a wide range of projects on the go. We also welcome two new faces to the team – Susie Robertson who is filling Heidi’s maternity leave position and Laura Vincent who works primarily in the youth area.
Following is a taste of what we’re up to. As many of you receive project specific updates, we’ve kept it brief. For further information, contact: Mere (Auahi Kore), Marija (Smokefree), Susie (Youth), Kath (Schools).
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Face the Facts
Face the Facts will launch on 5 April with a series of inexpensively, but cleverly, produced advertisements informing people of the realities of tobacco and smoking. It is a comprehensive campaign, with elements linking to cessation. Resources will be produced for local use. We’re keeping people updated through local coalition groups and DHB coordinators – if you haven’t yet received information about Face the Facts, contact Marija or check out the website (from 5 April).
Smokefree Environments
While second-hand smoke advertising will not continue at this point, we retain support resources for use at a local level for those promoting these messages. We have stocks of posters, key rings, stickers, number plate surrounds, sun shades, registration wallets and ice scrapers available. Contact Marija if you would like to order these – most are available at a low or no cost.
We continue to support council outdoor area initiatives and it’s been great to see an increase in the number of councils taking positive action over the past year. Congratulations to everyone working hard in this area.
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World Smokefree Day
This year’s quitting focus offers the ability to link to your local priorities – whether they are cessation focused or not. For those that aren’t, we recommend that you link to your local cessation providers to add value to both your priorities. Resource orders have now closed and you can expect to receive your order in late April. For further information, go to www.worldsmokefreeday.org.nz or contact Jess.
Events and Partnerships
The Big Day Out and Homegrown 2009 partnerships went well, with high visibility of the Smoking Not Our Future Brand and lots of great opportunities to interact with the attendees. Plans are well underway for Smokefreerockquest with the website up and running. Please encourage young people to visit the site to enter or support a band.
Television Partnerships
HSC has entered into partnerships with three television shows:
- New Zealand’s Next Top Model, which is due to start on TV3 on 13 March.
- Phunk Nation, which is due to go to air in August on Māori television.
- Tu Te Puehu, which screens on TV3 on Sundays at 9.50am and on Māori television.
The partnership with New Zealand’s Next Top Model aims to debunk the myth that smoking is glamorous, as is currently portrayed by many actors and actresses in the entertainment industry. Second, this relationship supports the premise that smoking is not a normal part of the modelling industry. The episode that addresses these issues is due on air on 8 May.
Phunk Nation will follow the hip hop dance group Prestige, from South Auckland, as they journey around rural New Zealand. Two of the performers have agreed to have their quit attempts filmed throughout the 13-week series.
Tu Te Puehu encourages participation by New Zealand youth in sport and leisure activities by profiling successful New Zealanders (young and old) who are excelling in sport.
In addition to these, I Am TV (TV2, 10am, Saturday) is a children's television programme doing a full episode on smoking on 18 April. As part of this they will be interviewing Shortland Street star, Ben Mitchell, who is a Smoking Not Our Future celebrity.
Te Matatini
Te Matatini, the National Kapa Haka Festival, was held in Tauranga in February 2009. HSC along with Te Hotu Manawa Māori
and ASH, worked with national and regional organisers to create a healthy environment for participants, staff and the public. The partnerships that were developed with the Te Matatini Society, the event organisers and the Regional Maatatua Organising committee resulted in the entire site being Smokefree, including the performance area and the food and craft stalls. Smokers had to exit the venue if they chose to light up. To help smokers manage their addiction while at the event, a nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) lozenge promotion was run where smokers could try the lozenge, get more information and even be referred to quit services. This promotion was supported and staffed by Aukati Kaipaipa providers and Quitline staff. Many thanks to all those that participated. Next time, we hope to have more helpers and fewer smokers.
Smokefree Schools
The schools group is in the process of contracting for the development of the Kura section of the website, with completion expected by 30 June. This site is constantly being added to with new information, the latest additions being about relevant research and quitting information.
For more information about what's happening in tobacco control check out the Auahi Kore website or the Smokefree schools website.
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SunSmart
SunSmart Summer Campaign
The SunSmart summer campaign ran again from November last year through until February this year. The focus was on the 'Never let your child get sunburnt' message. The campaign was supported by the introduction of new resources such as car shades and garden kneelers. These complement the existing frisbees, UV sensitive bottles, balloons, pens and rulers. If you need or want any of these visit www.hsc.org.nz/merchandise/index.php.
It was great to see so many community activities promoting SunSmart messages and providing access to sunscreen and shade to help protect their participants.
Melanoma Summit 2008
In November last year HSC facilitated the Melanoma Summit, which attracted more than 230 dermatologists, surgeons, general practitioners, nurses, pathologists, researchers and health promoters. The audience was presented with the latest findings on prevention, diagnosis, primary care and research from leading speakers from overseas and New Zealand. Ex-Silver Fern Adine Wilson and others who have had melanoma provided a personal perspective.
The Summit was timed to coincide with the launch of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Melanoma in Australia and New Zealand.
An exciting outcome of the Summit was the unanimous decision to establish a network to link all health professionals working in melanoma (to be known as Melnet). HSC will assist with the development of Melnet, providing advice and support to get it established. To find out more and join Melnet visit http://melanomanetwork.co.nz.
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Ultra Violet Index
HSC is leading a project to assess and improve the public understanding and use of the Ultra Violet Index (UVI). The aim is to provide an improved tool that accurately informs individuals and agencies of the risks associated with excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and the appropriate polices and practices to mitigate those risks and to improve daily sun safety among the New Zealand population.
Te Matatini
As previously mentioned, the HSC was involved in the Te Matatini festival, the national kapa haka competition, to promote healthy lifestyles.
The SunSmart team worked with the festival organisers to promote sun safe behaviour and encourage visits to the SunSmart Oasis to receive free sunscreen, information and other resources. We conducted a survey to glean information on the perception of risk, susceptibility and skin cancer/melanoma knowledge that, in turn, will help us learn more about how to best support Māori to be sun safe in the future.
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Feeding our Futures
Disseminating HSC healthy eating research has been a priority following the publication of two major research reports. The Social Marketing Audience Research and the New Zealand Children’s Food and Drink Survey have given us some valuable insights into what New Zealanders think about healthy eating and nutrition issues. This information will be used to provide direction for Feeding our Futures. Both these reports can be found at www.feedingourfutures.org.nz/content/research
A Māori Kaitiaki Roopu has been developing a Māori strategy for the programme and is advising the team on direction for campaigns targeting Māori parents and caregivers. The new Māori strategy underpins both programme and campaign planning.
The team has also been busy training DHB staff and community workers in using tools and frameworks to promote healthy eating. The training has focused on simple and effective techniques for making sure messages and information are effective for target audiences.
A revamped website is attracting an increased number of visitors seeking healthy eating tips and healthy recipes. Visitors can also sign up for an email campaign giving them tips and quick, low-cost food ideas. Sector visitors should also find it quicker and easier to order the new free resources that have been produced over the past few months.
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Problem Gambling
Kiwi Lives 2
The HSC’s Kiwi Lives initiative aims to strengthen New Zealanders’ understanding and awareness of, and response to, the far-reaching impacts of gambling. The original campaign (Kiwi Lives 1) was launched in April 2007 and was complemented by Kiwi Lives 2 in December 2008.
Using three real life stories Kiwi Lives 2 highlights the devastating impact of gambling on an individual (Lynette) and on a family (Denise and Thomas), and gives an example of what one community has achieved (Manukau and its ‘sinking lid’ policy on pokie machines).
Kiwi Lives 2 uses the catch phrase “Together we can make it right”, and the real life stories, to:
- reinforce the themes of Kiwi Lives 1 - that problem gambling is not just an individual problem, but one that affects us all
- show how and why it is a problem
- suggest that individuals, families and communities can do something about it
- prompt use of the 0800 number and website for help and/or information.
Resources
Following the launch of Kiwi Lives 2 HSC developed new resources including caps, bags, magnetic memo pads, pens and postcards. Postcards and pamphlets are still available to providers and stakeholders - visit ourproblem.org.nz to order them.
Keep an eye out for Māori and Pacific-specific resources that we are in the process of developing.
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Research and Evaluation Unit
Key projects the Research and Evaluation Unit is currently working on include:
Tobacco Control
Work to support Face the Facts, with an evidence review and testing of people's response to proposed messages. A survey to benchmark peoples' attitudes about tobacco and knowledge of the "facts" pre-launch is currently underway. Results from this survey will be compared with a post-launch survey to evaluate the effectiveness of Face the Facts.
The Smoking Not Our Future evaluation has been completed. More than 900 young people (12-24 years old) were interviewed to canvass their views about this initiative. Young people had high recall of the campaign and thought it was relevant, credible, and likeable. More than one-third of respondents (35 percent) who recalled seeing the television commercials reported they had taken action or thought about their smoking behaviour as a result. Some fact sheets summarising the impact and effectiveness of this campaign are currently being produced and the full report is available (as a pdf) on request.
If you have any questions about research for Face the Facts, Smoking Not Our Future, or the tobacco research from the Health and Lifestyles Survey, please contact Rhiannon, or Rose.
The New Zealand Youth Tobacco Monitor (NZYTM) has been implemented successfully in schools over the last three years and is now recognised as New Zealand’s most authoritative source of teen smoking statistics. The latest results from the Monitor (which incorporates the ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey, the Global Youth Tobacco Survey and the HSC Year 10 In-depth Survey) are due around May 2009. If you have any questions about the Monitor, please contact Kay.
Healthy Eating
After an intensive two and a half years of information collection to inform the development and direction of Feeding our Futures, HSC’s healthy eating research programme has moved into a phase of consolidation and publication. Research reports and a small number of Research Bites are already available on the Feeding our Futures website. Further Research Bites and publications to summarise and analyse the research findings will be available on the Feeding our Futures website as they are completed. If you have any questions about the healthy eating research, please contact Kiri or Bryony.
Sun Safety
The current SunSmart research programme includes assessing the effectiveness of the Ultra Violet Index (UVI) in terms of public understanding of, and response to, the index, and investigating public awareness and understanding of sun exposure and Vitamin D. If you have any questions about the SunSmart research programme, please contact Kay or Rebecca.
Problem Gambling
The problem gambling researchers have been busy supporting the development of Kiwi Lives 2. The three new ads launched in December 2008 were tested with 50 New Zealanders. Their responses to the stories were very positive and provided useful feedback to fine-tune the advertisements. A post-Kiwi Lives 2 survey beginning in June 2009 will evaluate the reach and effectiveness of the new campaign. An expanded research section has been added to the problem gambling website and further publications are in the pipeline and will be posted on the website when they are available. If you have any questions about the Problem Gambling research programme, please contact Rebecca or Sue.
2008 Health and Lifestyles Survey
This survey was completed in 2008 to provide information for, and monitor responses to, all four of HSC's programmes. This nationwide survey interviewed over 1,600 people in their homes. More than 700 parents and caregivers of 5-16-year-olds also were interviewed. The results from the survey are currently being processed by our data analyst, Danny, and will be published in the coming months. If you have any questions about the Health and Lifestyles Survey, please contact Sue.
The Team
There are currently eight of us in the team – Sue, Kiri, Rhiannon, Rose, Rebecca, Kay, Bryony and Danny. Ingrid McDuff left us in February to go to Jakarta with her partner, who has been posted there. Ingrid's substantial contribution to the NZYTM and other research will be missed, but we wish her well on her new adventure. Kiri too is leaving the team in April. After an amazing seven years with HSC, she is broadening her experience by joining the research company – Litmus. We acknowledge Kiri's substantial contribution to HSC's tobacco control, sun safety and healthy eating research. We wish her all the very best for this exciting move.
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Merchandise
With the end of the financial year fast approaching take a look at the HSC merchandise website and get your orders in. To relieve stress and make sure you receive your goods by the end of the year please have your orders in by the end of May. If you have queries about merchandise please contact Karyn-Marie.
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