Monthly Archives: August 2007

Talking with your kids about drugs – governmental fad?

This week, Australian households receive an A4 booklet entitled “Talking with your kids about drugs”. When it arrived I had a distinct feeling of deja vu as I remembered similar booklets arriving in the mail when I was a teenager myself during the 80’s. It was around the time Bob Hawke got up on stage with Dire Straits at the Sydney Entertainment Centre to accept a cheque from the band toward the drugs campaign at the time (The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse).

The current offering doesn’t seem a lot different to the one of twenty years ago – lots of facts and figures on the effects and impacts of each substance combined with positive role model case studies. What I’m interested in – does it have any demonstrable difference? I was encouraged initially by the TV advertisements which pushed the family communication angle. The print offshoot doesn’t seem to be offering a lot new though. What are your thoughts?

The poaching factor: AOD and industry

I saw the following announcement this week:

“RESIGNATION OF ADCA CEO

To ADCA members and stakeholders

It is with regret that the Board of ADCA announces the resignation of the CEO, Donna Bull. Donna has played a major role in ably steering ADCA through a period of transition and managing the multiple, and often competing demands. She leaves the organisation in a very strong position.

Donna will be leaving ADCA on 7 September to take a leading role in delivering AOD services in a major Australian industry. The Board expects to appoint an Acting CEO by that time.

While the Board will miss working with Donna as ADCA CEO, we are very pleased that she will be remaining in the sector and look forward to her future contribution to the sector in her new role.

Prof Robin Room
ADCA President”

I have no inside knowledge on the resignation but it seems it’s one of those cases where industry has come in with the more attractive offer. NGO’s can’t hope to match those sort of offers and so there’s more knowledge lost in the sector that becomes the property of the company the person moves to. Any company with good corporate governance processes in place will make new employees, particularly those higher up the food chain, sign an agreement that states any work they create during their employment becomes the property of the company. It’s not an unreasonable request given the degree of competitiveness in some industries, but it further decreases the likelihood of someone moving back into the NGO sector.

If you’re on twice the salary and can’t utilise any new intellectual property you’ve created, would you move back?

Successful health blogging

Over the past few months of writing for this blog, I’ve learnt a few things about the specific challenges of writing a health-related blog and thought they were worth passing on:

1. Define your niche

This isn’t an issue specific to health blogs but is pertinent all the same. The health fiels is so expansive that establishing a more defined area is nearly essential. A multiple sclerosis (MS) blog will gain more interest than a neurological disorders one. The former gives the opportunity for MS sufferers and their family and friends to identify with the issue. The latter may make most people feel sleepy after reading the title.

2. Put your ideology on the table up front

Health, politics, ethics and religion are all fundamentally intertwined. Before starting your blog you should take a hard internal look at your perspective. There’s nothing wrong with an ideological bent for your blog, but be damned transparent about it from the start. Some blogs do attempt to take a consensus approach and that can work well if the discipline of non-partisanship is maintained. If you’re running a pro-legalisation drug blog but want to hear both sides of the debate, then keep comments open and avoid the temptation of censoring comments that don’t meet your world view.

3. Know your field

No-one needs to be an expert in a health field to blog about it, but at the very least you need to have a solid grasp of the basics. The surest way to alienate readers is to get the basics wrong. It also gives the perception of a lack of interest on your part. If you don’t know the difference between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder then don’t inflict your ignorance on the public by starting a mental health blog – unless the niche is really well defined so that clinical terms aren’t important. Even then, you’re playing with fire.

4. Knowledge maintenance or death

Health, like any other discipline, evolves constantly. Keep yourself up to date so you sound informed in your blog posts. I run a syndicated feed with the latest news related to the blog’s purpose – use it for your own enlightenment.

ProBlogger are runnng a 31-day project on improving your blog – well worth checking out whether you’re already established or not.

Review of the National Community Crime Prevention Programme (NCCPP)

Noticed this message from the ANCD:

“The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) is undertaking a review of the National Community Crime Prevention Programme (NCCPP). The NCCPP is a $64 million grants programme that provides funding for grass roots projects designed to enhance community safety and crime prevention by preventing or reducing crime and antisocial behaviour, improving community safety and security, and reducing the fear of crime. More information about the programme and the projects that have been funded is available at www.crimeprevention.gov.au .

The purpose of this review is to examine the appropriateness and effectiveness of the NCCPP and to help inform government decisions regarding the direction of future investment in crime prevention at an Australian Government level. As part of this process, an online survey has been developed. The AIC invites anyone who has worked or is interested in crime prevention, had exposure to the work of the NCCPP or has views about how the programme might be improved to participate in the review and to complete the survey. Knowledge of the programme itself is not required.

The survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete, and is entirely confidential. The deadline for submissions is 5pm (EST) Friday 17 August.

Start the survey now https://secure.aic.gov.au/surveymanager/login.asp?anom=4x1x1

If you have any questions about this survey or the review in general, please contact Anthony Morgan on (02) 6260 9255 or anthony.morgan@aic.gov.au”

Any survey is only as good as its sample population, so if like me you weren’t really aware of the NCCPP, then it may be worthwhile telling them so.

Kevin 07 – what’s the outcome for policy?

If you haven’t seen it already, check out the excrutiatingly US presidential Kevin 07 website launched today. Once your eyes adjust, what you’ll see is a fairly comprehensive marketing effort that accentuates the generation gap between the Prime Minister and the aspirant. There’s links to Myspace and Facebook as well as a very healthy dose of video and other Web 2.0 baubles.

There’s no doubt the website will have an impact in marketing and political terms but I’m primarily interested in the potential policy impacts. The health section of the site only has broad objectives at present, one of which is an increased focus on prevention services. What’ll be interesting is whether the input from the public contributed from the site has any bearing on the finer details of policy when its released. The history of Labor politics and factions suggests not.

It’s hard not to see the website as a ‘hey, look at me, I’m web savvy’ effort rather than a true consultative, policy-driven enterprise. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.