Chapter 5 Our communications

This chapter focuses on the AIHW's strategic direction (SD2) 'Improve the availability of information for the community and our stakeholders'.

Communicating well

The AIHW is committed to communicating well by making its work widely accessible and easy to understand.

Today's audience expects to be told about new publications when they happen, and that they will be readily available in a range of electronic formats and come with easily understood summaries. The AIHW meets these expectations through its use of different communication methods, technologies and formats.

The AIHW ensures that its publications undergo a rigorous peer review and editing process so that they are as accurate and as easy to understand as possible. To ensure wide accessibility, all AIHW publications are available free on the AIHW website. Print copies can also be purchased.

Delivering publications in innovative ways

The AIHW releases all publications in Portable Document Format (PDF) and Rich Text Format (RTF). The latter is tailored for people with vision impairment who rely on special technology to read text on websites. Most AIHW report summaries are published in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which is also accessible to vision-impaired users.

During the year the AIHW began publishing under a Creative Commons licence (see the spotlight below). The AIHW's CC BY licence gives everyone the right to copy, adapt, share and distribute AIHW publications, as well as build upon them, even commercially, as long as the AIHW is credited as the original creator. This opens up the availability of the AIHW's publications to an even greater audience.

As part of the AIHW's commitment to improving information for the community and its stakeholders, key AIHW reports are accompanied by a printed 'in brief' version. Australia's welfare 2011—in brief and Australia's health 2012—in brief are attractive, consumer-friendly 48 page versions of the AIHW's biennial reports to the nation, Australia's welfare 2011 and Australia's health 2012. They provide highlights from the main reports in a highly graphical format, and answer some of the 'big' health and welfare-related questions, such as: Is Australia a healthy nation? What actions can be taken for good health? How do we care for others? And how do we compare?

These booklets are distributed in free class sets to secondary schools that buy copies of the main reports. This initiative is backed up by education worksheets on the AIHW website, together with online slide presentations and downloadable interactive quizzes based on the booklets.

Another 'in brief' publication summarises information from Australian hospital statistics 2010–11. This 36-page booklet, Australia's hospitals at a glance 2010–11, is written in a less technical style and published in a consumer-friendly format that combines key statistics with illustrative graphs and background information. It is also published in HTML format on the AIHW's website.

The AIHW also produces a number of report profiles. These 4-page documents use graphs, pictures and short summaries of information to illustrate a report's main findings. They are distributed at report launches, conferences, meetings and other events to promote the full report. In 2011–12, report profiles were produced to accompany the following publications:

• Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2009–10
• Assisted reproductive technology in Australia and New Zealand 2009
• Child protection Australia 2010–11
• National Centre for Monitoring Cancer Framework 2012
• The health of Australia's males
• The health of Australia's males: a focus on five population groups 
• The health of Australia's prisoners 2010
• Young Australians: their health and wellbeing 2011.

A number of reports are accompanied by an online snapshot that presents key points in a simple and attractive format. Snapshots released or updated during 2011–12 were for:

• allergic rhinitis
• asthma
• Australia's health
• child protection
• chronic kidney disease
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• diabetes
• male health
• prisoner health.

In October 2011, the AIHW launched a new set of web pages on mental health services in Australia at http://mhsa.aihw.gov.au/. Accompanied by a 30-page summary report in print and PDF, Mental health services—in brief 2011, the web pages provide a comprehensive picture of the national response to the mental health care needs of Australians (see the 'spotlight').

New web pages on diabetes indicators and incidence, and risk factors contributing to chronic disease, improve the availability of information on these for the Australian community.

Notification services for clients and stakeholders

Email notification services are offered through the AIHW website for those wishing to receive notices of the release of AIHW publications, newsletters and education resources, as well as employment and tender notices. Subscriptions to these notices have increased significantly in 2011–12 to over 16,500 (Table 19). The greatest increase in notice subscriptions has been for AIHW Access, the AIHW's long-established newsletter, which is available in print and online. There was also continued strong growth in public demand for education resources (see Education activities) and information on employment opportunities at AIHW.

Customer care charter

The AIHW has a Customer care charter approved by the AIHW Board, which outlines our service commitment to clients. It can be viewed online at www.aihw.gov.au/customer-care-charter/.

The charter outlines the AIHW's standards for responding to requests for information and how we make information and data available and accessible. It also reinforces our commitment to privacy in the collection, handling, use and disclosure of personal information, and provides information on how clients can make complaints, give feedback and obtain further information about AIHW products.

Feedback on the effectiveness of products

The AIHW continued to evaluate the effectiveness of its publications through short online reader surveys. Feedback was on the whole very favourable, with 94% of respondents considering the AIHW's publications to be 'quite clearly written' or 'very clearly written', 92% finding them 'quite useful' or 'very useful', and 76% saying they found the level of detail 'about right'.

Increases to both the number and types of products available on the website have seen visits grow over the year by 20% to 1.67 million in 2011–12. According to the 2012 internet user survey, most visitors are looking for health and welfare information and nearly half found the AIHW website by using a search engine such as Google. More than half of the respondents rated the website as 'good' or 'very good'.

New publications

Publication releases

In 2011–12, the AIHW released 141 publications, accompanied by 82 media releases, as well as many other forms of information and statistics including posters, fact sheets and online snapshots. This was a small increase on the 136 publications produced in 2010–11. The overall publishing trend in recent years has been steadily upwards (see Figure 3).

Publication sales

 Australia's health 2010 and The health and welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: an overview 2011 were the AIHW's most widely distributed publications in 2011–12. Australia's health 2012 and Australia's health 2012—in brief were also popular. As they were released late in the year under review on 21 June 2012, more copies are likely to be distributed in the coming financial year.

The AIHW's free summary publications Australia's health 2010—in brief and Australia's welfare 2011—in brief were the most ordered publications in 2011–12.

To increase the distribution of Australia's welfare 2011 and Australia's health 2012, the AIHW developed pre-release marketing campaigns that targeted specific government and non-government organisations as well as the education sector. This resulted in increases in overall distribution.

AIHW's website

Re-launched in early 2011 with a new design, navigation and content management system, the AIHW's website at www.aihw.gov.au received over 1.67 million visits in 2011–12. This was a 20.1% increase on visits in 2010–11 (1.39 million) compared with 5.5% over the previous year (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Visits to the AIHW website, 2001–02 to 2011–12

 

Popular downloads

Table 20 lists the publications that were most frequently downloaded from the AIHW's website during 2011–12. Australia's health 2010 was the leading publication downloaded in both years.

For those publications released during the financial year, the ranking may not be based on full-year figures, that is, the figures relate to the period between the publication's release date and 30 June 2012.

* Release date

Online products

During the year the AIHW added new products to its website.

• New snapshots were added (see Delivering publications in innovative ways).
• New full-text online reports were added: Australia's hospitals at a glance and Australia's health 2012—in brief.
• The Closing the Gap Clearinghouse website at www.aihw.gov.au/closingthegap/ continued to expand, with the addition of 9 publications, including resource sheets, an issues paper and an annual report. The website attracted more than 65,000 visits in 2011–12, an increase of 16% on the 56,000 visits in 2010–11. The clearinghouse was begun in 2010–11 by the AIHW for FaHCSIA, in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Family Studies.
• The Mental health services in Australia web pages at http://mhsa.aihw.gov.au/home/ (see the spotlight) were updated with new information on the mental health workforce and mental health-related services.
• The MyHospitals website at www.myhospitals.gov.au/ was updated several times throughout 2011–12 (see the spotlight).
• The AIHW won a Bronze Award for its online version of the AIHW annual report 2010–11 in the 'CAC Act Online Category' of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (ACT Division) 2010–11 Annual Reports Awards.

QR Codes

Quick Response (QR) Codes are two-dimensional barcodes printed on AIHW publications that, when read by smartphones, link the phone directly to the AIHW's website. The first AIHW QR Code links to the AIHW home page, giving fast access to the website. This code and a second QR Code linking to the Australia's health web page were used with Australia's health 2012 and Australia's health 2012—in brief. Similarly, the AIHW used a QR Code on printed promotional material to link to the online version of The health of Australia's males: a focus on five population groups.

Social media

The AIHW continues to use its Twitter tags <@aihw> and <@myhospitals> to keep followers informed about new releases on the AIHW website and updates to the MyHospitals website. There were 1,755 <@aihw> followers at 30 June 2012.

Twitter enabled 196 followers to keep abreast of news about the Australia's health 2012 conference, such as details of newly announced conference speakers and program updates. AIHW staff and conference delegates also used Twitter to highlight issues raised by speakers throughout the day and as a way to continue discussion and debate.

Intranet redevelopment

Work is underway to update the AIHW intranet using new technology, based on feedback and input from AIHW staff. Rollout of the new intranet is planned to take place in late 2012.

Education activities

The AIHW continued to build and maintain strong relationships with the education sector. Representatives from the AIHW gave presentations to about 1,200 students at the Victorian Certificate of Education Health and Human Development Student Day Out, and to about 250 health and physical education teachers from primary, secondary and special schools at the Queensland Branch of the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation conference in August 2011.

The AIHW continued to develop the education resource area of its website by adding a set of worksheets featuring highlights from Australia's welfare 2011 and Australia's health 2012. Worksheets were also developed for specific subjects in response to requests from teachers, including:

• obesity
• weight factors
• risk factors
• chronic disease.

Subscriber numbers to the automatic email notification education service rose by 84% over the year (see Table 19).

The targeted education marketing campaign undertaken since November 2011 showed positive results, with about 7,000 copies of the Australia's welfare 2011—in brief booklet distributed to schools, TAFEs and universities around Australia.

The AIHW encourages feedback and suggestions from users about its education resources through its education email contact point at . In 2011–12, the AIHW received about 400 emails through this channel. Through this means, schools, TAFEs and universities requested information and copies of reports, and/or provided suggestions for worksheets.

Media relations

Overall media coverage

The AIHW issued 82 media releases in 2011–12, up from 71 releases in 2010–11 (Table 21). This largely reflects the increase in the number of published reports for the year, as well as more announcements and launches, such as releases on the MyHospitals website and the Mental health services in Australia web pages.

Media coverage rose by 15% in 2011–12, increasing across all media except print compared with 2010–11. The 29% increase in online news coverage since 2010–11 may be due to an increasing shift towards online news, both as a substitute for and complementing print news.

Media coverage for individual reports and events

AIHW reports and events receiving the most media coverage during the year are listed in Table 22.

* Release date

The 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey report attracted the most media coverage for the AIHW in 2011–12, with 184 total mentions across all media, including 10 television items (see the 'spotlight' below).

Australia's health 2012 was the next most successful report in terms of media coverage, with 102 items relating to the report. Asthma in Australia 2011 and Lung cancer in Australia: an overview also received significant media coverage. The report on lung cancer was funded by Cancer Australia and the launch involved media spokespeople from both the AIHW and Cancer Australia.

Spotlight

Media profile: 2010 National Drug Household Survey report

The high level of media coverage of the 2010 National Drug Household Survey report reinforced the status of AIHW as the nation's premier source of health statistics. The AIHW was quoted in a positive light as the author or researcher in all the articles or stories, and much of the coverage related strongly to the messages given in our media release.

Examples of the kind of coverage the report received are:

We've got the message about smoking, are refusing to change our risky drinking habits with the notable exception of teenagers and pregnant women, and our appetite for illicit drugs has risen in the past three years. The mixed picture of drinking and drug use is revealed today in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's National Drug Strategy Household Survey, which shows men are more likely to use legal or illegal drugs than women, except for pharmaceuticals, which are used equally. 

Stephen Lunn (social affairs writer), The Australian 

Fewer Australians are smoking every day, but illicit drugs use is on the rise, the latest health survey says… The National Drug Strategy Household Surveys have been conducted by the government's health statistics agency since 1998 to provide a snapshot of drug use in Australia.

AAP, Newswire

Australia's love affair with the party drug ecstasy is waning. A drug use study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, released today, found the rate of ecstasy use throughout the population has dropped to 3 per cent, down from 3.5 per cent in 2007… The AIHW has been conducting research into drug use in Australia since 1998.

Anthony Templeton, mX (Brisbane)

Young women's cocaine consumption has skyrocketed in the past three years and the drug is most popular among educated, high-earning city dwellers, federal government statistics show. One in 20 women aged in their 20s used the drug last year, a 60 per cent increase from 2007. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's drug survey, released today, showed that cocaine use overall was most popular in NSW, where 2.9 per cent of residents had used the drug in the past year, followed by Victoria at 2.3 per cent.

Julie Robotham, The Sydney Morning Herald

A push to ban the supply of alcohol to children and teenagers in private homes will be brought to [the South Australian] State Parliament today, in a move to curb binge drinking at parties. … The move comes as the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released its latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2010. That showed 38.4 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds had recently consumed alcohol.

Sarah Martin (political reporter), The Advertiser

The 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey report also shows that most Australians support the establishment of supervised drug injecting rooms and the legal use of marijuana to treat medical conditions. According to the survey, conducted for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 50.2 per cent of Australians aged over 14 believe the minimum legal drinking age should be increased.

Peter Jean (health reporter), The Canberra Times

The latest national survey of drug use shows fewer Australians are smoking but more are using illegal drugs. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare survey found the number of people aged over 14 who are smoking on a daily basis has dropped to 15 per cent. The percentage of people who reported using an illicit drug has increased to 14.7 per cent since the last survey in 2007. Ecstasy use has declined but there were increases in cocaine use, especially among young women.

Afternoon Live (with Kim Landers), ABC News 24

Exhibiting at conferences

Professional conferences provide important opportunities for the AIHW to promote its publications, website and other services to a wider professional audience.

In 2011–12, promotional booths and related activities were held at the:

Staff of the AIHW exhibiting the AIHW's products at the Australia's Welfare 2011 conference.

• 2011 Primary Health Care Research conference (convened by the Primary Health Care Research and Information Service)
• Great Healthcare Challenge (convened by the Australasian Association for Quality in Health Care, the Australian Council of Healthcare Standards, the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association and the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators)
• 9th Asia/Oceania Regional Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics 2011 (hosted by the Australian Association of Gerontology)
• Longitudinal Study of Australian Children and the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children Research conference (hosted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies)
• 4th Primary Health Care Reform conference (organised by a conference committee from various primary care organisations)
• Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and Australian and New Zealand Society of Respiratory Science annual scientific meetings
• 2nd National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol conference (organised by the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee).

Parliamentary relations

Hansard references

The AIHW is considered a reliable information source by members of parliament. The AIHW was cited 68 times during 2011–12 in the Hansards of the Australian Parliament.

Budget estimates hearings

During the year, the Director appeared before the Senate Community Affairs Committee Additional Estimates hearings held for the Health and Ageing portfolio. Responses were supplied to 3 questions on notice following the 3 Senate Estimates hearings held during 2011–12. An additional 63 responses were supplied as AIHW input to portfolio-wide responses to Senate Estimates questions on notice.

Inquiries

The AIHW provided 4 submissions to parliamentary or government inquiries during 2011–12 (Table 23).