I actually like the leaflet that I was able to find it was the first leaflet I was attracted to, its message is basically about all you need to know on HIV. The leaflet talks about what HIV is, how you can and cannot get it, what you should do if you have HIV, how you can protect yourself from getting it and finally it talks about what to do if you want an HIV test and how you should approach a sexual health clinic and what questions you should ask them. Then they provide you with a help line which you can use. One thing that I liked about this leaflet especially is the way it explained that a person could get HIV it made it clear that people cannot get HIV from things such as kissing, hugging, touching etc which I feel is a good thing because some people tend to think that if a person has HIV they should avoid all type of contact with that person which can then lead sometimes to discrimination and making a person feel excluded/marginalised in society. The colours of this leaflet are plain they are gray and white on the outside and purple and grey in the inside however this leaflet is still very attractive the reason for this is that the picture in the front of the leaflet is of a face and I think this is what firstly attracted me to this leaflet because it made me want to stop and look at what was inside the leaflet, inside the leaflet there are the other features of the face inside that are highlighted in the colour purple which also makes the leaflet attractive. The message I feel is clear and simple they made this leaflet hold a lot of information without making it seem as if you were reading an essay which is also something that I like about it. The message of the leaflet was made effective through the use of pictures and the information inside the leaflet I feel it would mostly attract teenagers or young adults because it is something that is quick and easy to read, it is light in weight and can be easily hidden if people do not want others to see it and finally it is something which you can read and understand.
I think this strategy of creating leaflets is effective it enables people to know about the disease how they can get it, what they can do to prevent themselves from getting HIV it also provides information and help lines of how they can get help from different sexual health clinics and this strategy’s main purpose is to prevent the disease from spreading which I feel that if all leaflets are created as the one which I have discussed this strategy will be effective.
HIV/GUM Clinic
Lewisham does not have sexual health clinic or a GUM clinic however, there are these types of clinics in London the closest one to Lewisham is the sexual health clinic in London Bridge at Guy’s hospital, the type of support they offer is they provide advice for those who may have any concerns or worries over their sexual health, they also provide free HIV testing or screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and they offer counselling for anyone who has been affected by a sexual transmitted disease. The barriers that affect people heaving access to this service could be that some people who have sexually transmitted diseases may be ashamed of going to the clinics because of the stigma that is attached to having sexually transmitted diseases they may feel that people are watching them and stereotyping them just because of their situation making people may feel ashamed of using services such as these. Another barrier to this service is that for some people there are geographical barriers surrounding them travelling to go and use this service as I have said above this is the closest sexual health to Lewisham in London for some people travelling may be a problem for them as they may no have enough income to pay for public transport or for petrol in their cars also it may just be too far for people to travel and put people of using the service.
Personal lifestyle choices
The lifestyle choices are person chooses to make are really important because they determine how a person lives their life Neil Moonie states “the actions and habits of individuals may predispose them to health hazards, as may the environment in which they carry out their daily activities”. They are many choices that an individual can make to prevent themselves from getting HIV such as
- Practising safe sex- individuals who choose to have sexual partners should always aim to use protection such as condoms to prevent them from not only catching HIV but other STI’s such as Chlamydia, crabs etc also to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies. Practising safe sex is the best way for a person who chooses to be sexually active to have sex knowing that they are protecting themselves from any unwanted diseases.
- Celibacy- this is when a person abstains from sexual activity, where they may have a partner but they will not be sexually active this is the best way for someone to not be able to catch HIV because if a person is not sexually active there is no way from them to catch HIV.
- Tests- people who start relationships and are aware that they both want to be sexually active in their relationship, should firstly get tested especially if they have had several other sexual partners before to ensure that they have not contracted disease and also so that they will not pass it on to their current partner.
- Not using drugs/sharing needles- if drug users refrain sharing needles there is a chance that they will not contract HIV from one another, in fact even refraining from taking drugs at all will prevent a person from contracting HIV
There are several problems associated with these lifestyle choices such as
- Practising safe sex- sometimes people may not remember to use a condom for example a person who is under the influence of alcohol will consider the immediate pleasure of sex without considering the risks or having the control to insist on a condom being used. Another risk is that condoms are not 100% guaranteed there is a chance that a condom may split, which can lead to problems such as unwanted pregnancies or STI’s etc. Another risk which I discovered about people who practice safe sex is if a HIV patient decides to practice safe sex with his/her partner there is no way for them to produce children and this might be a disadvantage if the couple wanted to have children.
- Celibacy- the problem with practising celibacy is that you will not be able to produce children because you will not be sexually active, with your partner the only way a person would be able to produce children is if they decided to stop being celibate.
- Tests- some people may refuse to take the tests, therefore they would not know if they have contracted HIV or any other STI so may be putting themselves and partner or future partners at risk. The main problem with the HIV test is that you firstly do one test which is not always accurate that is why health clinics ask you to come back after 6 months to do a repeat test, so people have to wait for 6 months in order for them to know if they have contracted HIV or not, however the first test does tend to be accurate.
- Not using drugs/sharing needles- people who take drugs may find it difficult to stop using the drugs and my also find it difficult to separate themselves from friends who also take drugs.
Some individuals may risk having HIV even though they are knowledgeable about the disease because, some people may be under the influence or drugs/alcohol therefore may not really consider the fact that they are not protecting themselves from HIV during sexual intercourse, some people may be ignorant to the fact or just may not know that having unprotected sex or sharing needles can lead to HIV, this could be due to lack of proper guidance or education
The main factors that I believe would lead to prevention to HIV
The factor that I feel could lead to the prevention of HIV is more education in schools especially secondary schools because teenagers are more prone to unprotected sex so I feel that they should be educated into knowing the risks of unprotected sex, I know this because as we can see in this statistic “Teenage girls living in deprived areas are four times more likely to fall pregnant than those living in more affluent areas, official data shows, Office for National Statistics figures reveal 70.9 per 1,000 girls aged 15-17 in deprived areas conceive compared with 16.2 per 1,000 in richer areas. The difference was even greater when just under-16s were considered, the figures for England and Wales show. Experts warn action is needed where pregnancies are "stubbornly high". The government wants to halve the conception rate in under-18s in England by 2010. The ONS statistics also show fewer teenagers in deprived areas have abortions. In the least deprived areas, 71% of pregnancies in under-18s end in abortion, compared with 39% in the most deprived. Among girls under 16, the proportions were 77% and 50%.” From this I suggest that maybe the government should introduce safer sex workshops in schools in areas where things such as unwanted pregnancies are high or where HIV is high or common among people in the communities.
The national Breast Cancer Strategy
This strategy was created by the Breast Cancer (awareness) Campaign and it was created to help with the research findings of breast cancer, taken from the website its objectives are too “BCC will help to build the talent pool in breast cancer research an assurance that the highest quality of research will continue to be done in the UK, BCC seeks to encourage scientific innovation. BCC encourages scientific development and will continue to fund innovative projects that others might not support, BCC will continue to make every effort to engage in scientific and public dialogue and encourage scientists to communicate and collaborate with each other and ensure that the results are disseminated in an easy format to the general public, BCC will make every effort to ensure that research translates.” The strengths of stetting specific targets is because they allow the campaign to know what they need to do, and also lets them think of ways in which they can achieve the targets the have set themselves, however the disadvantages of having set targets are that they are not always achievable therefore the campaign may be unsuccessful if they are not able to reach all their targets.
These targets set here are about the best way that the campaign can research cancer, therefore I feel that is does not cater for everyone especially those who have breast cancer, they aim to look at the relationships between the diet and environmental and lifestyle choices and how they cause breast cancer but they do not talk about helping those who have breast cancer and how they can help to improve waiting lists for surgery or talking about introducing more palliative care or hospices for those who are terminally ill, this strategy focuses more on the research aspect of Breast cancer which although may benefit people with cancer by providing better treatments it is not really focusing on clients who already have breast cancer.
Again I feel this strategy can be evaluated through national surveys such as questionnaires Michael Haralambos states “ questionnaires are the main method for gathering data in social surveys, they are sometimes handed to or posted to the respondents and they are asked to fill it out this is known as self-completion questionnaire… in theory questionnaires provide directly comparable data” the whole point of this strategy is to create new treatments and therapies for breast cancer patients so I feel the only way it could be evaluated that the treatments are affective is by testing them out on breast cancer patients and monitoring the results of the drug and also giving out questionnaires to not only breast cancer patients, but for those who work in the campaign, to the trustees who maybe also monitoring the campaign. The advantages of evidence based evaluation are that you will now how successful the strategy was, it will also make you aware of maybe needing to improve anything in your strategy and also to see if the strategy was unsuccessful.
I am not sure whether this strategy is likely to be successful this is because researching cancer and creating new treatments is going to be very costly for this campaign and unless they have the funds they may find it difficult to accomplish, also another problem could be they might not be able to complete all their aims which they have because of the time limit they have given themselves this strategy was started in 2005 and all its aims are to be accomplished by 2010, because of this I think that maybe some of their aims might be unrealistic or unachievable. My reasons for this is because if we look at both strategies I can see that this strategy is more about finding a cure for cancer and the HIV strategy is more about prevent the diseases from increasing among people in society and I feel that this is more realistic than trying to find a cure for it.
Local Strategies
I got this leaflet from my G.P in Kent it was on a stand in the G.P so I was able to look and pick which one I wanted, it was easy to get from my doctors however I was first looking for it in Lewisham like I was looking for the HIV leaflet and I was not able to find it in the pharmacy or in boots so I went to my own G.P. Again I wasn’t embarrassed at the fact that I was picking the leaflet maybe because I didn’t need to ask for any of the staff to give me the leaflets I could just pick them myself, also feeling that I just wanted to read it I didn’t feel no shame in doing so, because to some of the patients there it could have seemed to them that all I wanted to do was read something while I was waiting for the G.P. so I wasn’t embarrassed at all. But if I were a patient who had breast cancer I think I would have been embarrassed by the fact that perhaps I would feel people were watching me as I was picking the leaflet, so that would have put me off, also I would feel uncomfortable due to the fact that maybe I would feel that people were watching me as I read the leaflet because I had breast cancer so it would make me very self-conscious.
To be honest I do not really like this leaflet at all the only reason why I picked it and am using it for my assignment is because I was not able to find any other leaflet at my doctors which I thought was a bit disappointing because I feel that in order for this strategy to be effective there needs to be a wide range of leaflets because not all leaflets will be attractive to everyone. The message of this leaflet is about being referred to a breast cancer clinic; it was created by the breast cancer care campaign and basically it talks about what to expect when you arrive at a breast cancer clinic for example the different types of tests available. It discusses how you would be referred to the clinic and finally it holds information about help lines people can call for help or advice. The layout of the leaflet is basically like a booklet which has a content page with what the booklet talks, one thing that this leaflet does not talk about is in fact breast cancer and what it is and how people can get it which I think they should have done. One reason why I don’t like this leaflet is that it is set out like your reading a book or an essay and it uses medical terms which to some people may be hard to understand. The leaflet is not attractive, the only thing that makes it stand out to other leaflets so that a person would be able to know it is a breast cancer leaflet is it colour which is green and pick which is what attracted me to the leaflet apart from that, the front page is boring it has nothing on it which would make a person want to pick it up and read it, inside the writing is also not attractive or eye catching. I think this leaflet would mostly attract those of an older generation because maybe they may be more willing to sit down and read it and will understand the leaflet more than say possibly an adolescent or a young adult.
Therefore I feel that this strategy of producing leaflets is effective in providing people with information and letting people know that there is support and advice available if they may need it however I feel in this situation it was not effective firstly there was not a selective of leaflets which people could pick and choose from and also this leaflet to me was not attractive and it was not really providing that much information on how breast cancer can be prevented or even what causes breast cancer/what breast cancer is and I feel that, this is what this strategy of leaflets should be about providing people with the appropriate information in order for them to feel comfortable reading the leaflet and to feel that after they have read it that they have gained enough information in order for them to prevent themselves getting the disease or helping themselves with the treatment of the disease.
Personal lifestyle choices
There are several lifestyle choices a person can make to ensure that they do not get breast cancer such as:
- Choosing not to smoke- a person who smoke increases their chances of not only breast cancer but other forms of cancer, people who don’t smoke have a high chance of not having breast cancer, individuals who smoke should be advised by G.P’s try to stop smoking by using treatments such as the Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT).
- Eating healthy- eating unhealthy or consuming too much alcohol can also lead to breast cancer, people who choose to eat healthy are infact decreasing their risks of getting breast cancer
- Being educated- people should be educated on how to examine themselves to see if they have breast cancer, and what they can do to avoid having breast cancer preferably by their G.P’s. individuals should also be educated into having regular checkup’s or examinations.
However there are several problems associated with these lifestyle choice preventions such as
- Smoking- people who smoke may find it difficult to stop smoking because nicotine is such an addictive drug, also some people may be unwilling to quit smoking because of the side effects which occur when a person is trying to give up smoking such as, eating too much which can lead to the increase of a persons weight, an individual can become very snappy and also a person may become to stressed to a point where there are physically withdrawn. There are treatments and therapies which a smoker can be advised by their G.P to take such as the Nicotine Replacement therapy, which provides smokers with another sort of crutch they can turn to when they feel they have a craving for cigarettes, such as the nicotine gum or nicotine patch etc
- Eating healthy- individuals may find it difficult to eat a balanced diet, due to many reasons such as not having the time to create proper healthy meals because they may be working or to busy another reasons could be due to the amount of income an individual receives in their household, people may not always be able to afford foods which are healthy for them.
- Being educated- some individuals may be afraid to go for regular breast screenings with their G.P’s because of the fear that they may have breast cancer (some people would rather not like to know and just continue living their lives) and then the fear of having to deal with the surgery and the treatments may also put them off. Also the ways in which people can be educated may be seen as a problem, for example the use of leaflets some people may choose not to read them because they may find them boring/unattractive or some people might just not have the time to read them.
The main factors that I believe would lead to prevention of Breast Cancer
A factor that I believe would lead to the prevention of this disease is the change of people lifestyle choices I think that this is the only thing people can do in order for them to prevent themselves getting breast cancer. Many lifestyle choices contribute to our health for example if people maintain a diet where they are on a low intake of alcohol there is a chance that they are less likely to get Breast cancer I was able to find this table on the cancer research UK campaign to back up my argument taken from viewed 22/03/07
A significant association between alcohol intake and breast cancer has been found, with an increase of risk of 7% for each alcoholic drink consumed on a daily basis
Around 4% of breast cancers in women in developed countries may be attributable to alcohol.
What I understand from this table is that the more a person drinks the more it increases your chance of getting breast cancer this suggests to me that alcoholism is definitely affecting your chances of breast cancer which is why I believe people should try to decrease their intake of alcohol, I am not even suggesting that people should avoid it because if we look at the table people who do not drink alcohol still have a chance of having breast, but we can also see that people who do not drink alcohol are unlikely to get breast cancer between 20-35. This basically leads me to saying that people need to change their lifestyle choices in order for people to try to prevent themselves getting breast cancer