HANDLE ANTIBIOTICS WITH CARE

Name of the activity: HANDLE ANTIBIOTICS WITH CARE

Country/NMO: Bosnia and Herzegovina (BoHeMSA)

Program: Communicable Diseases

Contact information: [email protected] +38762758400

Type of the activity: Campaign. Combination of education and advocacy. Campaigns create awareness in society about a certain topic (education aspect) and try to funnel this awareness into pressure on the decision makers to adapt policies accordingly (advocacy aspect).

General description:

Our project called “Handle the antibiotics with care” will be 5 phases activity held from 12-17. November. During the project we will reach different social layers of population in our country trying to educate them about AMR issue, to change their habits regarding use of anti-microbial drugs and their beliefs. We will start with the education of the students from different health sciences faculties by lectures about AMR and training them for the community work about AMR. Than the educated students will be community educators working with preschool children, primary and high school students and all types of patients in the primary healthcare units and healthcare workers. At the end(in the fifth phase of the project) all visited groups will be invited to join organizers, WHO representatives, healthcare workers and students in panel discussion “Symposium on anti-microbial registry and irrational use of antibiotics “ where we all can discuss this important issues.

Focus area:

Reduce incidence of Antimicrobial Resistance

Problem statement:

The AMR is one of the key regional problems for the Europe and world. With this activity we would join the global awareness campaign. Specific characteristic for our country is low education of the population about this issue ( but generally about health too) what leads to abuse of antibiotics. Through our project we would educate and cooperate with different target groups from children to older age at different places from kindergarten to ambulance to try to influence their attitudes and habits

Target groups:

General population, Medical students, Healthcare Students, Other Students, Doctors, Children, Youth

Beneficiaries:

General population, Medical students, Healthcare Students, Other Students, Doctors, Children, Youth

Objectives and indicators of success:

The objectives and goals are detailed described in the project proposal(which I can send you at request; it is supported by WHO Office for our country)

The 4 main objective are:

1-TO EDUCATE different population groups(pre and post educational surveys, statistical data about age, gender and working status(healthcare worker or not)

2- TO RAISE AWARENESS and catch media attention about this problem(social media attention, number of participants, attendance at panel discussion)

3- TO CREATE THE SENSE of individual responsibility in combating antibiotic resistance and training health workers to take action(number of participants, attendance at panel discussion)

4- TO REACH DIFFERENT POPULATION LAYERS ( statistical data from activity participants about their age, gender, working status)

Methodology:

1#Learn for yourself

Firstly students from different health science faculties will be trained about AMR and how to deliver the knowledge to different groups (they will become community educators)

2 #Learning from the young age

Students will visit kindergartens and deliver workshops to preschool kids about measures of personal hygiene and environmental hygiene, hand-washing demonstration according to the guidelines of WHO

3# Serious years, serious problems

Students will visit different primary and high schools and deliver workshops about

-bacterial and viral infections, and the differences between them

-Proper use of prescribed anti-microbial drugs

– consequences of abuse of anti-microbial drugs

-creating a sense of individual responsibility to fight this problem

-breaking myths about AMR

-importance of sharing this kind of information with the environment

4#Knowledge on the field

the same workshop as No3 for patients in ambulance and primary healthcare units

5 #Panel discussion

Plans for evaluation:

The project will be held in several phases(described in methodology)- before each education phase with different population group there will be pre- and post- educational survey (except for the preschool children and low grades children) to see the difference in the knowledge about the AMR topic as one of the success indicators. We will also cover the number of the participants in each phase and age information. Also at the end of campaign panel discussion will be held both for healthcare workers and general population, and one of the indicator of the impact of the campaign will be number of attendance of the general public and journalists. Number of likes and post shares at social media will be also indicators of the online reach of the campaign and number of TV and radio screenings.