For over fifty years, IPSF has strived to actively engage our members in initiatives that positively influence health and health knowledge within their communities. By focusing on globally relevant issues and offering resources and materials to our Members, IPSF aims to provide various opportunities for students and recent graduates to expand their involvement in the public health arena.
IPSF has chosen several significant topics on which to focus efforts, including HIV/AIDS Awareness, Tobacco Awareness, Stop TB, Diabetes & Healthy Living, and World Health Day, all of which are under the direction of the World Health Organization with whom IPSF holds Official Relations status. As well as these formal public health events, IPSF encourages its members to identify public health issues in their region and work with other health care professionals to improve overall health and welfare in their communities.
For more information on each particular IPSF Public Health Activity, please click the links below.
For any and all questions please contact the IPSF Chairperson of Public Health at publichealth@ipsf.org
Despite an ongoing global effort, the number of individuals infected with HIV/AIDS has reached epidemic proportions across the globe. Lack of education, lack of quality resources, difficulty in obtaining medications, and widespread misinformation about this deadly virus are all contributing factors to this worsening situation. The face of AIDS is everywhere, and its devastation reaches far beyond the affected individual.
With these facts in mind, IPSF created the AIDS Awareness Campaign; a multi-faceted initiative in place to act as a framework for assisting pharmacy students world-wide to help fight HIV/AIDS.
This campaign does not only provide knowledge to target groups, but as a true public health campaign it addresses attitudes and beliefs, with the ultimate goal of training pharmacy students and practitioners in order that they may positively impact the health of those affected by HIV/AIDS. As critical members of the health care team offering unique skills and knowledge, we in the pharmacy world are in a perfect position to fulfil these objectives.
The goals of the campaign are to:
· Improve the public’s knowledge about HIV/AIDS.
· Promote attitudes and practices that prevent the transmission of HIV.
· Build up skills as pharmacy students and graduates that help to develop greater understanding and knowledge of HIV/AIDS.
· Promote the pharmacist as a key member of the health care team in improving the lives of those with HIV/AIDS.
· Encourage students to go out into the community and make contact with patients, therefore cultivating skills and experience that will make them better practitioners throughout their career.
The essential components in this campaign are:
· preparing, managing, and implementing the campaign;
· training the educators;
· interacting with the target group;
· maintaining the momentum of the campaign; and
· monitoring the quality of the process and evaluating its impact.
The benefits to fulfilling a campaign such as this, for HIV/AIDS or otherwise, are far reaching into both the professional and patient sectors of the population. There is no better way to improve healthcare than to link healthcare providers and recipients in open lines of communication.
For more information regarding the planning and implementing an HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign in your community, please contact the IPSF Chairperson of Public Health at publichealth@ipsf.org
Following the proactive action of the World Health Organization (WHO) to adopt smoking as one of its main targets for action, IPSF elected to implement a campaign aiming to help stop this epidemic in all facets or the population. The IPSF Tobacco Alert Campaign was officially launched during the 1998 IPSF Congress in Helsinki, Finland, and has since grown to be one of the most popular initiatives of the Federation.
In order for the campaign to be effective, it is important to educate beyond the purely scientific aspects of tobacco risks, and focus on communication skills, psychology, and changing attitudes and behaviours towards smoking.
World No Tobacco Day as directed by the WHO, occurs annually on May 31st with a different theme each year. The 2007 theme being ‘Smoke Free Environment’, IPSF encourages all pharmacy students to actively taking part as future healthcare professionals to achieve a smoke free environment starting from their own school of pharmacy.
It is widely known that tobacco is a major factor in numerous health conditions for both smokers and non-smokers. As we find out more and understand the consequences of tobacco use on the passive smoker, the need to create tobacco-free public areas becomes extremely important. It is in this context that IPSF proposes a campaign to transform your university into a healthier environment. We cannot forget that as future health professionals, we have responsibilities in this area and we should be, whenever possible, an example to the public. With this in mind, IPSF is encouraging all Faculties of Pharmacy worldwide to step up and make all pharmacy premises, related events, activities, parties, celebrations, and gatherings tobacco free.
IPSF is a partner of the
In May of 2004, IPSF became the first professional organisation representing pharmacists or pharmacy students to be admitted to the WHO Stop TB Partnership. This event, which coincided with the release of a joint statement between IPSF and the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Federation (CPA) entitled: ‘Partnerships – the Key to Improving Health Outcomes for Tuberculosis/HIV Patients’ has given IPSF many opportunities to participate in discussion groups and forums related to the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis (TB).
Tuberculosis is an incredibly widespread disease – roughly one third of the world’s population is infected with the TB bacillus, and it is responsible for more than 1.4 million deaths per year, more than any other curable infectious disease. As such, pharmacists can play an invaluable role in supporting access and adherence to antibiotics used to treat TB, as well as offer social and educational support to those with the disease.
As with all IPSF Public Health Campaigns, we encourage all of our Members to mark World TB Day, March 24, by planning and implementing a TB Awareness Campaign in their area. For more information on campaign ideas, and how to best reach affected individuals in your community, please visit www.stoptb.org, or contact the IPSF Chairperson of Public Health at publichealth@ipsf.org.
Pharmacists Fight TB Web Forum
On the 17th of May 2005, IPSF and the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association were pleased to launch the first web forum for pharmacists and pharmacy students on TB with the WHO Stop TB Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. This new forum contains information about TB, joint IPSF-CPA projects, member campaigns, and latest news. Visit www.pharmacistsfighttb.org now and sign up to receive regular updates.
IPA/CPA/IPSF TB Fact Card Project, Mumbai, India Launched 24th March 2005
The TB Fact Card project is aimed at encouraging pharmacists to counsel TB patients to adhere to strict and demanding medication regimens, by helping them understand the importance of keeping up with treatment regimes despite an improvement in symptoms. Visit www.pharmacistsfighttb.org for more information.
Recognising the increasing burden of diabetes on the health sector, the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation decided to take healthy living and diabetes campaign as one of the public health focus. The focus of IPSF Healthy Living and Diabetes campaign has always been to involve pharmacy students and young pharmacists in educating the public on the risk factors for developing diabetes and management of the disease, while gaining a sound knowledge themselves of a prevalent public health issue.
Campaign centre on prevention divided into two categories:
· Primary prevention
Preventing the development of diabetes by educating the public to reduce their risk factors for developing the disease. This includes promoting healthy eating, reducing obesity, and encouraging physical exercise in the target population.
· Secondary prevention
Preventing the development of complications such as visual problems, kidney problems, and cardiovascular disease in people already diagnosed with diabetes, to reduce mortality in the diabetic population.
Each year, under the direction of the World Health Organization, IPSF encourages all of its Members to become actively involved in World Health Day on April 7th each year.
Promoting the philosophy of improving global public health through localized action, World Health Day aims to make a world-wide positive impact under the umbrella theme of a globally significant health issue; the theme of 2007 being “International Health Security”.
As pharmacy students and young practitioners, IPSF believes our members are in the perfect position to positively contribute to World Health Day. By adapting the yearly theme to align with the health concerns of their community, IPSF members can gain experience and insight into the practice of public health while promoting the pharmacist as a key player in this role. Through planning and implementing events and campaigns for World Health Day, IPSF Members are doing their part to improve health and health education in their communities.
The 2008 World Health Day theme will focus on Integrated Primary Healthcare, details to be announced as soon as they become available.
For more information regarding World Health Day, including campaign ideas and events and promotional material, please visit http://www.who.int/ and contact the IPSF Chairperson of Public Health at publichealth@ipsf.org.