This health communication campaign, titled “Antibiotics: Not Your Cold Fix”, was organised in collaboration with KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH). It aimed to prevent antibiotics misuse among parents of children aged 0 to 12 years old.

The campaign focused on reaching parents through six roving booths, General Practitioner clinics, its Facebook and Instagram pages, and a comprehensive website guide.

 

The Highlights

The campaign reached over 3,000 parents in Singapore across online and physical platforms. Through interacting with parents, the team aimed to spread knowledge about what antibiotics can do, why they should use it wisely, and urged them to ask for advice instead of antibiotics in managing their child’s cold symptoms.

Roving booths held at six community spaces – KK Hospital, Sengkang CC, Nee Soon South CC, Our Tampines Hub, and two Sheng Shiong supermarkets (Punggol Central and Tampines Central) effectively engaged parents and their children through the fun activities and engaging collaterals. The team also liaised with campaign partners to display posters and brochures in four General Practitioner clinics in the Punggol and Sengkang area. KKH has also displayed the campaign’s lift sticker, a life-sized hopscotch sticker, posters and brochures for one month in areas where there is high foot traffic.

For social media, the team also created a video to illustrate the issue through a fun analogy – like how one wouldn’t use chopsticks to eat ice cream, one shouldn’t use antibiotics for the cold. This video, featuring expert Dr Hsu Li Yang and his children, was shared by prominent health organisations and parenting publications such as National Healthcare Group, Singapore General Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and The Asian Parent. Watch the video below.

The team also managed to pitch to Young Parents to feature the campaign; as well as work with three other parenting influencers on Instagram to talk more about antibiotic use for the cold.

The Memories

Engaging a parent at the booth in Our Tampines Hub.
Parent spinning the wheel to win a prize.
Explaining viruses and bacteria to a young participant.
A parent taking an interest on the issue.
Member of Parliament (MP) Lee Bee Wah showing her support.

Reflection #1 – The Challenges

Insufficient existing research on antibiotic resistance.

Since antibiotic resistance is an emerging issue in Singapore, there was a gap in local research on antibiotic use and patients’ attitudes. Although the team supplemented this research gap with expert interviews and worked with KKH, input and data from more experts surveying the local landscape would have better informed the campaign. The team hope that their report and original research will help to supplement this gap for future campaigners.

Coincided with a national campaign.

It was unfortunate that the campaign ran concurrently with the Health Promotion Board’s (HPB) Use Antibiotics Right campaign. While the bulk of the campaign was in February-March, HPB’s campaign began in November 2018. The mainstream media and parenting websites had already covered this issue since HPB’s campaign, and there was little reason for them to do so again. Similarly, there were GP clinics and polyclinics that already displayed HPB’s collaterals. This limited the team’s reach through earned media and partnerships with more healthcare providers.

Antibiotic resistance is a big issue in itself.

Antibiotic resistance is a complex issue with many contributing factors that are out of the team’s scope and control. While the team managed to effectively communicate their message to parents and saw knowledge, attitude and behaviour change, this was only one aspect of the wider issue. The team believe that the collaboration of many other stakeholders is necessary to tackle antibiotic resistance to keep antibiotics working for future generations. The team hopes that more efforts can be put in to scale this on a wider level to reach more parents.

Reflection #2 – The Takeaways

The team’s patience and persistence paid off.

Although the team encountered challenges in reaching out to groups, the results have been fulfilling and interactions with parents made their efforts worthwhile. The team was patient and persisted in reaching out to more organisations, and therefore managed to link up with individuals and organisations that were passionate about the issue. This opened up doors to partnerships and collaborations that helped widen the campaign’s effectiveness.

Always aim for right first time.

As first-time campaigners interacting with large organisations, the team learned that it is extremely important to convey clear expectations in the early stage. This will give organisations ample time to approve materials – some organisations even had several rounds of approval for the materials, and this extended the preparation timeline.