E-drug: Evaluation of drug bulletins (cont)
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Dear Essential-druggers,
I will respond to Denis Ross-Degnan's call for evaluation of whether
drug bulletins achieve "knowledge improvement and behavior change"
with a metaphor.
If you want protection from the weather you need a roof. However the
first step is to build walls otherwise the roof will fall down.
Building walls takes a lot of work. If you evaluate the walls alone
for their ability to protect you from the weather then you will prove
that they do not work very well. You may feel that all your hard work
has been worthless when in fact it is Essential!!!
Drug bulletins should be evaluated for their reliability. They are
needed before complementary activities that are more effective for
achieving behaviour change can be started. This is because the
behaviour change agents need a reliable process for telling them what
behaviours they should be promoting.
If bulletins are not yet reliable they require nurturing and more
support not discouragement. If bulletins are reliable then they
deserve appreciation and more support. It may take a life times work
just to create a strong reliable bulletin. It is only when bulletins
are strong that they will have the resources to move on to doing the
additional activities required for achieving behaviour change. In
many countries it may be more appropriate for other organisations to
take responsibility for these other activities.
One way to learn methods for achieving behaviour change is to learn
from what the drug companies do. Contact me directly if you are
interested.
I would like to thank Denis for his magnificent contribution to
organising the 1st ICIUM which was one of the best meetings I have
ever attended.
regards,
Peter
Dr Peter Mansfield
Director, MaLAM
PO Box 172 Daw Pk SA 5041 Australia
phone/fax +61 8 8374 2245
peter.mansfield@flinders.edu.au
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