Public Health Undertakes Two Public Immunization Awareness Campaigns
Public Health’s Transformation, in response to Action for Health, prioritizes increasing access to immunization to better protect Nova Scotians from vaccine-preventable illnesses which put additional strain on the healthcare system. To support this initiative, Public Health is embarking on two immunization awareness marketing campaigns over the next several months.
The first will be a general immunization marketing campaign targeting all Nova Scotians. This campaign will focus on the following key messages:
- Vaccines are safe, effective and save lives.
- Vaccines are available across the province through various healthcare providers
- Make sure your vaccines are up to date.
The second campaign will be focused on the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Public Health has been awarded funding through the Urban Public Health Network to help increase the uptake of HPV vaccine among youth as part of a national campaign.
This HPV campaign will be two-fold – one that includes strategic advertising to youth and another that provides direct education, awareness and an opportunity to be immunized, to Grade 12 students attending schools that have been identified as having barriers to accessing immunization. As this is a new project, two to three high schools will be selected in each zone this year.
The HPV vaccine campaign, that will run from mid-February to the end of April, will be directing youth and their parents to www.nshealth.ca/HPV for more information about the disease, why the vaccine is important and how they can get immunized.
The general awareness campaign, running from the end of March through the end of May, will direct Nova Scotians to www.nshealth.ca/immunizations.
You can also find more immunization documents and forms on the Information and Wellness Portal here: https://physicians.nshealth.ca/topics/public-health/immunizations
Public Health anticipates that this may increase questions for our healthcare partners, and we encourage you to reach out to your zone Public Health team to help answer any questions.
Introducing Diagnostic Imaging Central Intake!
Nova Scotia is on an exciting journey to modernize and improve Diagnostic Imaging (DI) referrals, with the goal of providing better care and services for Nova Scotians.
We are excited to share that planning has begun for a Diagnostic Imaging central intake office that will support these requests provincially, bringing an innovative, patient-centered approach to DI referral management.
A key part of our overall transformation efforts, this provincial multidisciplinary team will launch this summer/fall and build upon our electronic referral initiative.
Think of it like a checkout line at the grocery store – but for DI referrals. Instead of patients and providers picking DI locations (checkout lanes) with varying wait times, patients join a single provincial queue and referrals will be directed based on factors like priority, type of imaging requested, and patients' travel preferences.
Learn more here:
- Diagnostic Imaging central intake office
- NEW Diagnostic Imaging Transformation TOP 3:
- Issue # 1
- Subscribe for ongoing updates.
Read the full newsletter here.
