Introduction
Every year people get infected with some diseases and do not where the infection comes from. One of the ways to get infected is the sexual life that requires attention and methods of protection from both partners.
Though the symptoms can be slight and not worth being noticed, people live with their infections and transmit those to their sexual partners without being aware of their disease. In this respect, tests available in health care centres and clinics enable the population to pass free tests and receive adequate treatment to prevent further spread of the infection.
Some people are ashamed to apply for professional help though they should take into account the number of serious complications that may affect them in case they do not treat the infection adequately. So, tests performed on regular bases enable people to learn about their health and problems with regard to effective methods of treatment.
Chlamydia Campaign Overview
General overview of the problem
Chlamydia campaign is considered as one of the most potentially effective methods for promoting the idea of healthy sexual life among sexually active young people in the age of 25 and younger who can potentially have this disease and transmit it to other partners without knowing either about the fact of having or about the outcomes of not treating it respectively.
Moreover, men and women can have this disease asymptomatically whereas only serious health problems make people apply for professional help of health care providers.
The results received in the study by Burstein et al. (2001, p. 28) suggest that 81% of women that took part in the research in the age <25 are infected with Chlamydia whereas the number of tested women offers that the percentage of infected women is even higher because women in the age of <25 are tested less frequently than women in the age of ≥25.
In this respect, this research provides a clear evidence of the necessity and importance of taking tests, especially when one has more than one partner or changes a sexual partner.
As reported by Dicker et al. (2000, p. 430), contemporary Chlamydia tests “…cost less, require less expertise to perform, specimens are easier to transport…”; this means that people can pass tests without spending much time, costs, and efforts. As results are received in relatively short period of time, people do not have to worry about complications that may occur while waiting for results of the test.
Aim and scope
As people can pass tests easily, they have to be informed about this opportunity and use it in order to prevent fertility problems and other serious complications that may occur when the disease is not treated correspondingly.
The main problem addressed by the group consists in the attempt to encourage people to pass the tests for Chlamydia and care more about their health and the health of their sexual partners. So, the group members are going to launch a campaign aimed at increasing the number o people who take Chlamydia tests and bring their partners to take that test as well.
A survey can help the group members to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign by surveying people in the street about their awareness of such a campaign and the number of times they took Chlamydia tests. The main task of the group is to persuade people to take tests with the help of this promotional Chlamydia test campaign.
Resources Necessary For The Campaign
Cost management
Costs can be considered one of the most important resources of any project. “A detailed cost estimate will give an organisation a more accurate portrayal of actual and expected project cost” (Cleland and Ireland 2006, p. 280). Thus, project management strategies should be implemented while planning, organising, motivating, directing, and controlling the process (Cleland and Ireland 2006, p. 52).
In other words, cost limitations and the type of funding are essential for the type of organization and risk management procedures.
The costs can be saved due to application of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme under which all individuals in the age of <25 can be screened for Chlamydia and receive adequate treatment as well as their partners of any age. Alternatively, the group can collect costs for purchasing of Chlamydia test kits (manufactured by Clamelle Company) that cost £25.00 per a kit.
One of the possible sources for costs to base the campaign is a loan from the bank or some investments that can be done by charity organisations that deal with health care problems and care about the health of the population. In this respect, the first step in planning the campaign can be fundraising strategy so that group members could provide the campaign with sufficient funding.
So, a charity campaign can be held in association with other non-profit governmental or private organisations that are interested in promotion of health-targeted ideas among population including young people in the age of 15-25. This strategy can enable every individual to donate to the campaign fund hence becoming aware of the necessity and importance of taking Chlamydia tests.
Every aspect is important for the campaign including “the time required to complete a project, the availability and costs of key resources, the timing of solutions to technological problems…” (Mantel, Meredith, Shafer and Sutton 2007, p. 18) and a great number of other variables that can affect the project outcomes.
As soon as the group members obtain necessary costs for launching the campaign, they can start the production of T-shirts that will have slogans printed on them.
These slogans will encourage people to take tests and promote the idea of taking tests among their friends and, certainly, partner/partners (see Figure 1). In this respect, costs for production of T-shirts should be combined with costs to be paid to people that will distribute T-shirts and collect data concerning the position of respondents toward the test-taking.
Moreover, certain contingencies such as overall failure to convey the idea of taking Chlamydia tests can affect the entire concept of the project.
However, the idea with promoting the Chlamydia tests is really original and is worth being supported by charity and health care organisations and funds. The T-shirts can be purchased at discount from stocks and sales while further application of slogans can be made with the help of available resources.
Risk management
Risk is one of the integral parts of the project management. There is no guarantee that the project is sure to succeed or can have certain percentage of additional costs to be implemented. In this respect, it is necessary to assess the risk typical of the promotional campaigns and other non-profit events arranged on non-profit basis.
As reported by Huselid, Jackson and Schuler (1997, p. 177), it is possible to take “…risk-adjusted capital-market measure of performance that reflects both current and anticipated profitability…” In this case, the profitability is presented in the form of people that are eager to take Chlamydia tests in the shortest period of time after the campaign.
Besides, it is necessary to make sure that no other similar campaigns are operating in the same period or shortly before and after the Chlamydia test promotional campaign because this will influence the accuracy of data.
Moreover, risk can arise from health care promotional campaigns arranged and operated on the basis of health care institutions enabling people to donate blood and take tests immediately in the health care institution.
The risk management concerning the Chlamydia promotional campaign also includes the activity of people and the place chosen for distribution of T-shirts with encouraging slogans.
In this respect, the preliminary research on the most appropriate places for distribution and ways of assessing people’s activity in terms of test-taking should be conducted in order to exclude potential risk of failure. So, “the payback period is often considered a surrogate measure of risk to the firm: the longer the payback period, the greater the risk to the firm” (Mantel et al. 2007, p. 11).
In this case, the ‘payback period’ can refer to the period of time analysed by the group members in terms of the response on the Chlamydia promotional campaign. Thus, the longer the reported period is, the more likely the risk of ineffectiveness of the campaign can occur.
In other words, it is necessary to choose appropriate team and appropriate setting for launching of campaign in order to receive the most adequate and accurate results. A mobile laboratory can reduce the risk of ineffectiveness of the campaign bringing the number of non-respondents to the campaign to the minimum.
Timing and resources
Every project requires certain period of time for its completion. In this respect, the group members should assess the time necessary to arrange the launching of the campaign, effective presentation, and collection and evaluation of results.
As reported by Mantel et al. (2007, p. 28), it is necessary to “assess the resource demands on the organisation, indicated by the size, timing, and number of projects shown.” The charity organisations can provide the group with volunteers under the aegis of some health care programme.
We need a total number of about 10 people who can use graffiti spray (e.g. Montana Gold Clearance Pack that costs about £40 for 12 cans of different colours) to apply slogans on T-shirts for people to purchase. The campaign is expected to be held during 5 days including the end of the working week and the weekend.
In other words, organisation and assessment require certain time as well as the operation of the project hence making the arrangement and assessment stages of the project the most time-consuming compared with the campaign itself.
Every stage of the process requires a certain period of time and includes risk related to limitations imposed by other campaigns launched in this area hence leading to inability to collect data on the number of responses to the campaign efforts.
The resources for the Chlamydia campaign include human resources, costs, timing, manufacturing and distribution, collection and analysis of data. Besides, the preliminary stage also includes a research conducted on the number of tests taken by people in the age of 15-25 in a certain location.
This means that most efforts of the campaign should be aimed at promotion of encouraging materials nearby the health care institution or a mobile laboratory so that researchers could collect the data before and after the campaign and compare those.
To sum up, the T-shirts can be purchased at discount or via sales reducing the costs necessary for T-shirts production; volunteers can be invited from colleges and schools empowering them to use the data collected in their own researches; creation and application of slogans can be performed by group members to reduce the costs; overall support can be required from charity organisations that fight against health problems and try to reduce the number of people that suffer from sexually transmitted illnesses.
Target audience
People are encouraged to use condoms and other means of protection to make their sexual life safe and less complicated. A great number of infections are currently transmitted via sexual contacts due to inappropriate education of people and lack of information on the problem of sexually transmitted illnesses.
This gives a great freedom for a research because the main target audience of the proposed campaign includes young people in the age of 15-25.
This category of people includes individuals that have never had a sexual contact before and those who had more than one partner. In this respect, the T-shirts should be colourful and stylish so that they could meet the expectations of the respondents who would either purchase a T-shirt or take a test in a mobile laboratory immediately after being informed about the potential possibility of having Chlamydia.
Though a number of respondents is expected to demonstrate some portion of scepticism openly, it is also expected that a greater number of respondents would respond to the promotional campaign adequately by purchasing a T-shirt with encouraging slogans or by taking tests immediately.
However, both options are preferable and the researchers will try to encourage people to take tests, purchase T-shirts, and inform their friends on the necessity and importance of taking tests due to asymptomatic nature of the Chlamydia infection.
Moreover, the group members can take active part in the promotional campaign or can focus o the researching activity hence they might need more volunteers or get additional costs to ensure that the number of activists is sufficient in relation to the number of potential respondents.
Expected Outcomes
Benefits of the test
The test taken by individuals to find out if they have some sexually transmitted diseases can prevent further spread of the infection and guarantee a healthy sexual life in future.
Moreover, tests taken in time can result in adequate treatment of the disease and prevention of infertility as one of the serious complications. In this respect, the possible benefits of the tests taken due to being impacted by the Chlamydia test-taking promotional campaign are obvious with regard to the number of people that may potentially have Chlamydia.
Being a host organism of an infection, a person may fail to recognise the symptoms of the disease and receive appropriate treatment. In other words, accurate tests can enable people to think over their priorities and care more for their health and a healthy sexual life taking caring of their sexual partner as well.
A Chlamydia test is really important because of the asymptomatic nature of the disease caused by Chlamydia trachomatis infection. Though some people are sure about their health, others do not have a single sexual partner being in a group of risk to have Chlamydia. Thus, the number of people that want to take a Chlamydia test should be increased by at least 20% compared to the data before campaign.
Possible limitations. Possible limitations of the campaign include a great number of possibilities and risks imposed by the use of those possibilities in terms of costs and sources of funding. In this respect, it is possible to contact a private health care institution that requires advertising.
So, the group can create sanitary bulletins with advertisement of the private health care institution on one side and useful information about the Chlamydia infections and importance of taking tests on the other side of it.
This cooperation will provide the group with additional costs or with economising of costs because this cooperation can be conducted on the following bases: a private institution can enable the group to insert their information on one side of their advertisements requiring no costs though having the advertisements distributed by the group members or volunteers in the areas agreed upon by both sides.
In this respect, the group should choose the most appropriate way of creating materials and distributing those in order to receive the most effective results in terms of the increased number of people who want to take Chlamydia test. Besides, the group members can fail to choose the appropriate ways of distribution.
Conclusion
The number of people that may potentially have diseases caused by Chlamydia infection increases due to the number of unprotected sexual contacts and lack of desire of individuals to take tests influences the fertility and the overall health of the nation. These infections can be easily detected with the help of a simple test that can be taken in a mobile laboratory.
As the nature of the disease presupposes the lack or even absence of symptoms, most people that have the Chlamydia do not even think about their health due to inability to recognise the disease without symptoms whereas a test can make things clear.
In other words, the Chlamydia test-taking promotional campaign is aimed at encouraging people to take Chlamydia tests and inform their friends and sexual partners about necessity and importance of taking tests, especially when a person changes a sexual partner or has more than one partner.
The overall costs necessary for the campaign include £40 for graffiti spray (12 cans), £5000 for blank T-shirts (1000 items £5 for each that will be painted), £25/test kit (the total number of kits should be coordinated with the mobile laboratory that will perform tests).
Reference List
Burstein, G. R. et al., 2001. Predictors of repeat Chlamydia trachomatis infections diagnosed by DNA amplification testing among inner city females. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 77, pp. 26-32.
Cleland, D. I., and Ireland, L. R., 2006. Project management: strategic design and implementation. 5th ed. London: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Dicker, L. W. et al., 2000. Impact of switching laboratory tests on reported trends in Chlamydia trachomatis infections. American Journal of Epidemiology, 151 (4), pp. 430-435.
Huselid, M. A., Jackson, S. E., and Schuler, R. S., 1997. Technical and strategic human resource management effectiveness as determinants of firm performance. Academy of Management Journal, 40 (1), pp. 171-188.
Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., and Sutton, M. M., 2007. Project management in practice. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons.