From formal to friendly: creating materials that work with adolescents.

The Immunization Action Coalition, publisher of over 100 health educational pieces on immunization, offers a way to take a formal recommendation to vaccinate all 11- and 12-year-olds against hepatitis B by creating a friendly educational piece that can make adolescents and their parents sit up, take notice, roll up their sleeves, and run to doctors to demand their hepatitis B shots. The brochure created follows dictates of passion, words, graphics, feedback, and no copyright. The coalition's semi-annual newsletter, Needle Tips & the Hepatitis B Coalition News, encourages adaptation or use of the brochure, which is approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Adolescent immunization: focus on implementation.

On March 11-12, 1996, a workshop on how to implement new adolescent immunization (AI) recommendations was held in Atlanta, Ga. Sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was a collaborative effort of the National Immunization Program, the Division of Adolescent and School Health/National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and the Hepatitis Branch/National Center for Infectious Diseases. The workshop brought together organizations and individuals interested in adolescent health and immunizations so they could address how new AI recommendations can be implemented most effectively. This article offers an overview of their discussions and suggestions, including issues of cooperation, education, legislation, and AI program development among health provider organizations, health department, schools, community groups and various other agencies relating to adolescent health services.