Educating
Education is the central pillar of the Global Campaign. It is a prerequisite for making aware, and is required at all levels.
Specialist education initiatives should be developed by the International Headache Society and, in Europe, by the European Headache Federation. These should not generally be within the scope of the Global Campaign.
Educating health-care providers
As a means of delivering education to health-care providers enrolled in interventional programmes during Campaign stage 3, who will mostly be in primary care, training-the-trainers programmes have an obvious role and should be given priority.
Within the Global Campaign is the Master's Degree course in headache medicine at Sapienza University of Rome, a training-the-trainers course offered annually and now in its eighth year. It is hoped eventually to roll this out in an expansion programme to other major universities in Europe and elsewhere.
People contributing to these activities
Basic curriculum
Coupled with this, the areas of required knowledge in primary care must be defined, and set out in a curriculum of basic essentials. Educational materials need then to be created to support local initiatives imparting this knowledge within Campaign stage 3.
The Handbook of Headache
A major reference text (electronic and print), The Handbook of Headache, will be published during 2011. It is aimed at non-specialists. It has involved authors and reviewers from all over the world to ensure cross-cultural relevance as far as is possible.
People contributing to these activities
Educational and clinical management support materials
Other modes of professional training in primary care are being explored, not forgetting that the internet is able to reach doctors in most countries of the world at relatively low cost. In due course, this website will carry a full range of educational and clinical management support materials.
Educating the public
General public,
including people with headache
Initiatives should encompass five threads of education for people with headache and the general public:
a) that headache disorders are medically important, both in individual and in public-health terms;
b) that medical attention should be sought for bothersome headache, and that health-care systems should be expected to provide it;
c) that people with bothersome headache should understand their headache disorder(s);
d) that patients should understand (in general terms) their medical management in order to comply with it;
e) that people with headache should be aware of life-style and environmental factors that they can control.
Community
Beyond these, there is a broader but ill-defined need for community education, where "community" includes specific audiences such as employers, schools, social services and media.
Again, e-learning via the internet is a likely way forward.