The case is presented in four segments: background, program planning, communications involvement in program planning and some program results.

Background

The author worked on the project described here during his practical experience work term for the Masters in European Public Relations program. This section includes a description of the author's involvement in the project and concentrates on the parts of the case that relate specifically to the subject under study in this dissertation, communicating to illiterate populations.

In autumn 1994, the author was working in the communications department of the New Brunswick Department of Health and Community Services in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. One of the author's tasks was to help co-ordinate the communications campaign for a new program, breast cancer screenings for women aged 50-69 in the province who were "asymptomatic", that is, not previously diagnosed as having symptoms of breast cancer.

The Breast Cancer Screening program was a result of a policy on breast cancer screening developed by the DHCS to build on a report by the New Brunswick Breast Cancer Screening Committee and the restructuring of the hospital system into seven separate hospital corporations (Appendix E). Also considered was the breast cancer incidence and mortality rates and evidence supporting the effectiveness of breast cancer screening for women 50 to 69 years of age (Standards for Breast Cancer Screening Services, 1994:i).

Program Planning

The communications campaign for the program was already established when the communications department of DHCS was given the task. It was published by the Department shortly after the beginning of the author's involvement, in the "Breast Cancer Screening Services in New Brunswick: Policy and Standards" (Appendix A). The main thrust of the campaign was to recruit the target group, women aged 50-69 in New Brunswick, to take part in the program, that is, to have a quality breast cancer screening once every two years.

It should be noted that in the province of New Brunswick, the seven separate hospital corporations, as directed and informed by the Department, deliver hospital services such as this. Therefore, the "Standards" publication is used to direct each corporation to carry out tasks using the same standards as other corporations. Each corporation may make its own judgements about how to carry out some specific tasks.