The Hepatitis Foundation of New Zealand looks back on a successful year as the end of 2019 approaches.
As part of its work to raise awareness of and educate people about hepatitis, the Whakatane-based organisation partnered with video production company BullsEye Productions to develop and launch online education videos aimed at helping healthcare professionals stay informed and keep up with best practice developments. The videos feature on this website and our social media channels, and have met with extremely positive feedback.
Growing engagement on social media continues to be a focus for us. “Digital communications are increasingly important and we will continue to grow our online engagement initiatives in 2020 to educate people about hepatitis,” CEO Susan Hay says.
On the events front, we held a successful conference in Whakatane, which was attended by more than 70 people and gave primary care nurses further insight into supporting people with hepatitis and how best to manage their treatment.
July 28 saw us celebrate World Hepatitis Day with increased awareness of the virus and the need to get tested for it.
“There are 150,000 people in New Zealand with hepatitis and many are unaware they have it,” Susan says. “It is important to raise awareness of the risk factors so people can get tested and receive the monitoring and follow-up they need.”
With that in mind, our team has also worked hard to increase awareness of hepatitis B, with features appearing in NZ Doctor and Pharmacy Guild magazines, as well as various other print and digital publications and broadcast outlets throughout the year. We look forward to continuing to work with other health care organisations in 2020, to help people living with hepatitis achieve positive health outcomes.
