Event Planning and Outreach Tips

Health Professional Outreach

Partners in the healthcare community can present grand rounds, lectures and seminars on COPD.

• Are you a pulmonologist or respiratory specialist? If so, offer to conduct a one-hour workshop for other health professionals on COPD at your hospital or health care plan. Use our slide set/deck and educational video to focus on the signs and symptoms, the need for early diagnosis, and the elements of a successful COPD management plan.
• Are you a respiratory therapist? Perhaps you can conduct a session focusing on the importance of spirometry testing. You might even teach staff how to properly conduct spirometry.
• Are you a primary care provider? Seek out opportunities to present a workshop for your colleagues on the importance of considering a COPD diagnosis among at risk patients in your practices. Again, you can use the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® slide deck and educational video as the basis for your presentation, as you highlight who is at risk, the signs and symptoms.
• If you are a patient or patient-advocate, consider teaming up with your doctor or another medical expert to do a joint presentation on COPD for medical staff, medical students, or other health care professionals.

Community Outreach

Partners can host screenings and COPD educational workshops at:

• Community centers/ Local libraries
• Shopping malls
• Health fairs

Coordinate COPD screenings, including spirometry, with a local community health group or hospital, or contact the COPD Foundation for information on booking the Mobile Spirometry Unit (MSU) www.copdfoundation.org.  Distribute COPD Learn More Breathe Better® fact sheets.

Faith-Based Outreach

Tap into your ability to reach people through your own faith communities.

• Ask your clergy to allow you to do a five-minute talk as part of a service.
• Work with other members to conduct a workshop and/ or screening for your congregation after services on this day.

Regardless of what type of event you and your organization pursue, please reach out to the health editors at your local newspaper and TV and radio news stations and encourage them to write a COPD health feature during the month of November. You can also contact the calendar sections of print and electronic media outlets with just a three sentence description of the event for community calendar listings.  Use the template press release included in this kit to let local media know about what your organization is doing to promote COPD awareness.

And don’t forget to REGISTER YOUR REGIONAL, STATE, OR LOCAL EVENT.

 

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