Organ donation drive given a Face(book) lift

Queensland’s organ and tissue donation agency has moved into the 21st century by appealing to Generation Y through popular social networking site Facebook.

UQ Journalism and Communication students are reaching the hard-to-reach demographic via an online awareness campaign, "Tell Someone Who Cares” for Queenslanders Donate, a division of Queensland Health which co-ordinates deceased organ and tissue donation across the state.

Participating student Evan Shay said the aim was to allow young people to access information about organ and tissue donation in an interactive environment.

“The younger demographic is notoriously difficult to reach through traditional media, so Facebook provides a contemporary way to approach this audience,” Mr Shay said.

Ms Kate Stodart, Communication Manager for Queenslanders Donate, said Australia has one of the lowest organ and tissue donations in the world, despite having one of the world’s highest transplantation success rates.

“Australia had 198 donations last year and only 39 of these donations came from Queensland,” Ms Stodart said.

“We always seem to be playing catch-up in the way we communicate so, this is a real opportunity to target Generation Y with 21st century technology.”

Mr Shay said a contributing factor to the low donation rate is that many Queenslanders are unaware they need to discuss their wishes with the people closest to them.

“That’s why our key message of the Facebook organ and tissue donation campaign is “Tell someone who cares,” he said.

The students have created a campaign that allows Facebook users to upload photos with a person close to them which then registers them into the draw to win a variety of prizes.

“The competition aims to encourage people to discuss organ and tissue donation with the people who can make a difference – the next-of-kin – while using a fun interactive approach to start the discussion about this serious issue,” Mr Shay said.

Ms Stodart said Queenslanders Donate were happy to have the students on board to help spread the important message of organ and tissue donation.

“We need to keep up with the new technology and ways of communicating with this age group and it’s exciting for us to be working with these UQ students as we can also learn from them," she said.

(Source: University of Queensland: September 2008)