HC Deb 09 April 2003 vol 403 cc324-5W
Chris Grayling

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the public health education campaigns carried out by his Department in the last 12 months. [106625]

Ms Blears

A list of the major public health campaigns run by the Department's Communications Directorate for 2002–03 is shown in the table. Also included is the purpose of each campaign.

Name of campaign Purpose
Antibiotics To encourage the public not to overuse

antibiotics and thus reduce their effectiveness

CALM (Campaign

Against Living

Miserably)

To promote the CALM mental health helpline

to young men on the onset of depression

(certain regions only)

Flu To advise general public that those at risk

(people 65 and over and others suffering from

specified illnesses) should see their GP for a

free flu jab

Immunisation Advertising campaign to inform parents that

they could obtain advice about MMR from

health professionals and get a free information

pack, simply by calling NHS Direct. Ran May

to October 2002 in national press. Regional

press, parenting press, women's magazines and local radio

Mind Out Campaign to reduce the stigma associated

with all those with mental health problems

NHS Direct NHS Direct Older People campaign—ran

from w/c 17 June 2002 to end of October 2002.

The main objective of the campaign is to

increase awareness and usage of NHS Direct

amongst 65 to 75-year-olds by 10 per cent.

NHS Direct Online campaign—a text link

advertising campaign ran throughout 2002–03

aimed at all internet users searching for health

information on the web. An internet

advertising campaign targeting young men

aged 18–34 ran from November 2002 to

January 2003 and a campaign targeted at

young women aged 18–34 ran from January to

March 2003, the aim of both being to raise

awareness and usage of the NHS Direct

Online website

Organ donation To encourage the everyone to register as an

organ donor and to carry an organ donation

card

R U Thinking (teenage

pregnancy)

R U Thinking's target audience is young

people (boys and girls) between the ages of 11

and 18. The main purpose of the campaign is to support the teenage pregnancy strategy.

The strategy's key aim is to halve the rate of

teenage conceptions in England by 2010. The

national campaign focuses on the key

messages of taking control, choices and

personal responsibility

Sex Lottery (adult

sexual health)

The Sex Lottery's target audience is young

adults between the ages of 18 and 30. The

main purpose of the campaign is to raise

awareness of sexually transmitted infections

(STIs) and to provide information to

encourage condom usage. The key objective is

to reduce rates of STIs amongst the target

audience

Smoking The purpose of the Tobacco Information

Campaign is to reduce smoking prevalence in

England. The campaign's most visible

presence is a TV advertising campaign

Dr. Fox

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on(a) health and (b) diabetes educational materials for schools in each year since 1997. [107732]

Ms Blears

The Department does not keep a central record of specific expenditure on educational materials in schools. We support: a variety of programmes and initiatives to enhance and support education about health and healthy living. Alongside the Department for Education and Skills, we jointly fund the national healthy schools programme, which has provided a total of £27 million since it began in 1999. We have also supported a number of good practice booklets for schools and teachers to help them ensure the health and well being of their pupils. Together, these initiatives have an important role in the prevention of many conditions, including diabetes. The Department has not produced education materials exclusively about diabetes.