Synopsis
Education is the first line of defence in stemming the rapid spread of Hepatitis C among drug users sharing injecting equipment.
We developed a ground-breaking campaign directly from in-depth research insights into illegal injecting drug user attitudes and lifestyles.
Our research revealed high levels of ignorance around safe injecting practices and Hepatitis C. Neuro Linguistic Programming research (NLP) provided valuable insight about the attitudes and mindsets of hard-to-reach drug using audiences and helped us to develop stay-safe messages in language and visual reference points that the target audience could relate to.
The campaign ‘Don’t shoot and share Hepatitis C’ was developed for injecting drug users, showing this group how to stay safe using highly visual, practical help. The idea was to seed the right information into drug user networks and see it passed from user-to-user to promote safer injecting.
Practical tool kits were developed and distributed to users with information and advice how to stay safe. Radio and cinema advertising drove awareness.
As a result of the campaign, there was a 16% rise in awareness of Hepatitis C. 1.9m web microsite page impressions for more information about Hepatitis C. Nearly a third of all National Drug Helpline phone calls received during the campaign from North East England campaign area concerned Hepatitis C. Propensity towards using the drugs helpline and accessing information from drugs clinics increased by 3% and 3% respectively, equivalent to an estimated 6,500 young people helped.