Guide to planning health promotion for AIDS prevention and control

Abstract

A practical step-by-step guide to the effective use of public information and education as a strategy for persuading the kind of behavioural changes needed to limit the spread of AIDS. Addressed to those responsible for planning and managing an AIDS health promotion campaign, the book extends guidance on the use of specific educational methods and techniques that have proved their effectiveness in other large health campaigns aimed at altering the behaviour of individuals and groups. Throughout the book, lessons and examples taken from various AIDS campaigns are used to help planners anticipate problems, recognize what is most likely to work, and guard against common pitfalls. The organization of the book follows 10 sequential steps required for successful planning, implementation, and evaluation. Readers are given guidance in assessing needs, establishing goals, selecting target audiences, and finding the most appropriate messages, format, and media for reaching each target group. Details range from a sample questionnaire for use in assessing public attitudes to a model twelve-month plan for scheduling activities, from a list of questions to ask before engaging broadcast media to advice on how to create messages that show how a reward is gained when behaviour is changed. Other sections describe methods for assessing the progress and effectiveness of the programme and explain the importance of supporting the use of such services as counselling, HIV testing, and the distribution of condoms and spermicides. The book concludes with advice on how to pre-test a proposed message to determine whether the target audience will understand it, like it, and find it convincing