Text Message Services

Text Message Services About SMS Text messaging is also referred to as SMS, or short message service. Having the ability to instantly contact subscribers throughout the country is one of the best benefits of this marketing strategy. In addition, text messaging offers a personal way to reach out to the public in ways other methods simply cannot achieve. PPTMS (PreventionPays Text Message Services) offers an efficient, cost effective Text Messaging platform for the public health agencies. We know how daunting the text message world can be, from the jargon to the aggregators, to service providers – and the vast majority of services are geared toward the commercial industry; and they are priced for them as well. We have been in text messaging since 2005, designing software exclusively for public health industry. If your office or agency is seeking text communication for your priority group(s), we have the solution for you! The PPTMS platform enables responders to communicate by text message to anyone, anywhere using a short code and web-based interface, via a PC, laptop or any wireless enabled device. The application allows you to easily accrue your listserv, and create appointment reminders, crisis support, weekly tips about vaccinations, or tips on improving one’s health seeking behavior, i.e. sex info for teens, or tips/advice about chemical dependency. PPTMS application provides a secure website and database, according to HIPAA guidelines, that will empower your staff with all the tools they need to deliver text communication without the complicated issues that surround the industry. We have the experience, and the knowledge to navigate those waters for you. How Our Clients Are Using PPTMS: Bullying Tip Line – Schools and school districts are using text messaging to stomp out bullying through an anonymous web-based sms portal Crisis Support Line – Two-way IM style chat services for teens, young adults and hearing/speech impaired, a safe, reliable service that gives responders a new way to help deescalate emotional crisis and prevent self-harm. Sexual Assault Helpline – text based services for survivors of sexual assault/abuse, IPV. Tobacco Cessation – alerts, tips, resources, and referrals by text msg - an innovative strategy supporting the desire to quit through weekly alerts that seek to expose the truth about addiction and big tobacco, and encourage behavior modification through social norms and experiential marketing.

Sex and Relationship Advice - Providing Sex advice/education and Relationship tips/alerts and life coping skills to teens through the use of text alerts and two-way chat support Regional Disaster Alerts – Providing regional disaster awareness, and resources to users based on the zip code they provide when they start their subscription. And numerous other applications including Truancy Response Service, Homework Assignment Line, Appointment Compliance Services, Health Resource Provisioning and Referrals through a partnership with 211 service providers (for more ask about our new suite of services, “TXT211”)

How would you use PPTMS in your community?

PPTMS Offers Many Unique Ways to Build Contacts Use the integrated, adaptable web-based survey tool with your priority groups to generate new contacts. For example, let’s say your client wants to build contacts for the HIV/AIDS programs. Create a survey by using the website tool, and add demographic questions and behavioral assessment questions so that with each contact, you will also generate user profiles, (which can be key when you create alerts, or reminders). Knowing more about your population will help you generate the most targeted campaigns. The LGBT tobacco cessation program asks questions like, are you currently a smoker? How long have you smoked? Have you tried quitting? For non-smokers, we asked, do you have a friend or partner you would like to help quit smoking? The survey can also be short and simple, with 2 or three questions, age, health concern, and cell phone number. Text, “Info” if you would like to receive text message information about HIV testing and HIV/AIDs-related health services in your area. Alternatively, the opt in method could be a simple bolt-on banner or web label to a pre-existing website. Whatever the method, PPTMS provides the resources necessary to build self-sustaining listservs. Research has shown that ongoing communication with priority populations will help foster trust and loyalty among subscribers. What distinguishes PPTMS from other programs? Our services are uniquely designed for public health. Like most SMS programs, PPTMS is designed to manage bulk messages, with no limitations on the number of contacts. However, unlike commercial offerings, the program also provides frontline staff the ability to manage their contacts on a more personal level, with one-on-one messaging. Commercial SMS programs are only concerned with reaching as many contacts as possible with SMS blasts, whereas, PPTMS gives frontline staff complete control over individual messages, and this is extremely important when you consider the

nature of communication between social services and members of the public. Simply put, there are messages that need to be handled by a human being. Mainstream text services do not offer users the ability to view and respond to individual messages. Our goal is to build the most robust and customizable text message service for public health agencies. PPTMS will help each department reach their priority groups with crucial information that, in some cases, will save lives, and offer frontline staff confidence in their abilities to monitor responses and ensure services are attained in a timely manner. For example, SMS is an ideal tool for managing RX and testing compliance with HIV/AIDS programs. SMS will support family health clinics with appt compliance. Appt compliance among patients is a major concern, particularly among, low-income patients, who do not have a home phone and rely on their cell phone more heavily than any other group. PPTMS provides your staff with an extremely useful tool, as they can create messages in any language and achieve greater success in reaching individuals with important reminders. Create and control a wide variety of text message based services for use in mobile marketing, mobile subscriptions, and other mobile initiatives. PPTMS features a versatile and easy to use software interface preconfigured to make text based mobile marketing for public health services and other interactive mobile initiatives simple to create and manage. Along with mobile quizzes, polls, and voting, PTMSS can deliver text messages with mobile Internet links (WAP push), URL links, and instant mobile content downloads such as images or streaming video. See our MMS services for more information about sending vibrant content that promotes branding and helps cultivate affinity groups. Moreover, unlike other text message platforms, PPTMS offers individualized IM-style, two-way messaging, ideal for personal, one-on-one communication with your priority groups. We have designed the UI to enable self-assigned communication, so that a team of responders can be logged onto the same location, responding to the same string of messages. And your reports can be published according to the way in which you provide support, from intake, issue driven, to resolution, referrals, or de-escalation through counseling. Telephone support can be time-consuming. The freedom of being able to respond by typing a text message on your computer, instead of a live conversation, can improve efficiency and decrease costs. For example, crisis line volunteers are able to reply to a text message crisis on their computer, while responding to a second crisis on the hotline.

What our clients have to say: “I always thought, no, a text message is too short for these types of problems. I was wrong. We have teens texting us everyday, and they are so grateful for our services.” Debbie, Crisis Call Center

“It’s amazing how much can be accomplished with text messaging. It’s a marvelous program.” Jorge, Switchboard Miami PPTMS Provides SMS-Based Emotional Support: (Addressing Complex Emotional Issues with Individuals in Crisis, Post-Disaster, e.g. Gulf Oil Spill) PPTMS program/application gained its inspiration from the highly successful Samaritans UK program, and with thanks to the program director, Alan Hymns, we were given terrific insight into the dos and don’ts in SMS crisis communication. Crisis Call Center, in Reno Nevada, launched their pilot program, using PPTMS to deliver emotional support via text message service in 2009 to remarkable success; in some cases, within hours of program launch, area residents were using the new services. There was a real and palpable correlation between placing marketing materials (promoting the text line) in a pilot school, and same-day pick up among individuals in the target population. The development team and CCC expect to see similar results as the program is rolled out to additional schools. SMS text messaging offers a timely and relevant mechanism for acquiring instant help with complex social issues that threaten our communities, across all ages and demographics. Simply put, texting is how the public is choosing to communicate. This program is not only giving those experiencing feelings of distress and despair a new method of communication to receive emotional support but it is also enabling them to feel more at ease with the center staff. More than Two-Way Messaging: In addition to IM style two-way messaging, the PPTMS development team designed an innovative system that enables multiple staff members, or agencies, to respond to distinct, self-assigned messages, simultaneously. This revolutionary component is particularly well suited for disaster alert projects or crisis response. The program architecture lends itself to inter-agency health servicing needs, where, an agency managing multiple health topics can use PPTMS for all their communication needs, by calibrating message routing by topic or department. In addition to a mutual location where the tasks of responding to text inquiries are a shared responsibility between responders or sites, developers built into the application the ability to keep notes about the individual text user, and create pre-fabricated, timesensitive alerts that can be sent to select groups of users, by region (area code, zip code) or topic, tobacco cessation, HIV testing, women’s health, etc. For example, if a new service is available to individuals in a particular area, the alert can be routed to the area codes that are in the vicinity of the new service, thus ensuring alerts are always sent to the individuals who need them the most.

The system allows for quick single message responses that can be automated, in the form of mobile style surveys, or extensive IM style messaging that can continue for hours. The confidentiality of the dialogue between responder and user is of the greatest importance. Extensive and flexible access-control mechanisms are provided to enable an organization to control user roles, from a frontline staff member who is responding to incoming contacts, to an administrator gathering up to the minute data on traffic reports, and compliance outcomes. Responders are also able to quickly translate messages containing unfamiliar words or phrases with a web-based tool, called, Text2Lingo; PPTMS provides links to many sms support resources, that will help less proficient responders become more text savvy. Despite a learning curve for staff new to SMS, in most cases, responders, with prior experience, were trained on PPTMS in an hour and managing live conversations later that day.

Examples: Vaccination Drives - “Flu vaccinations available this week @ Clark County Family Health Services, from 9 AM to 2 PM. Reply “Yes” to this message if you plan to attend.” Chronic Disease Prevention: SMS gives frontline staff a new way to get alerts out about disease outbreaks. With one message, provide life-saving information to thousands of subscribers, at first sign of an outbreak - “5 new cases of H1N1 discovered in Local Middle School. Classes are cancelled until further notice. To get vaccinated, call 510.333.5555.” HIV/AIDS testing: “Free rapid testing 2day and 2morrow @ the Women and Family Community Health Center. Click link 2 download directions 4 ur mobile phone ” Insulin Reminders for Diabetics: “Don’t 4get to test ur blood sugar today. For tips on how to get your free testing package, reply “yes” to this msg. “ Smoking Cessation: “Wanna quit? Free cessation packs available at healthcare registry. We offer Rx and nicotine replacement options. Reply “yes” if for coupon, and mobile directions to a site near you.” Medical appt. reminders: “Ur appt. with Dr. Anderson is tomorrow, 2 PM. Please arrive 15 minutes early. Reply “Yes” if you will make the appt. “No” if you are unable to and need to re-schedule.”

Sex Education Tip: “New South Wales study found that more than half of sexually active teens who use the contraceptive pill don’t use condoms to protect themselves from sexually transmissible infections (STIs). Condoms are the best way to protect urself from STIs.” School-based Anti-bullying Campaign: “Report cell phone bullies! If you or someone you know is being targeted, we can help. Report cell phone abuse. It’s anonymous, and safe.” Emergency Alerts: Natural disasters IM Style Response for on-call doctors or other healthcare professionals Creating a New Campaign in 5 easy steps! Step One: Select your target population and enumerate your access points Step Two: Select one or more keywords that are consistent with the overall aims of the campaign and will resonate with the priority group. Step Three: create a web survey, provide links at each access point, provide each access point with a website bolt-on Step Four: Grow contacts through outreach and access points Step Five: Manage Incoming/Outgoing Messages, build groups, and send reminders and text message blasts to all contacts or specific, customized groups (i.e. education and website link for non smokers who would like to help a friend or partner quit). Generate reminders days or weeks in advance, or schedule an immediate alert to go out in 5 minutes. View messages, and manage your listserv anytime, anywhere, with an Internet connection. FEATURES • • • • • • • • •

PPTMS is a secure, web based, highly customizable service It is hosted and maintained (including back up) on co-lo (redundant servers) Very low running costs Fully confidential; meets HIPAA Health IT guidelines System can be set up to interpret create text in alternate languages View a string of text messages prioritized according to time received Point and click text message authoring Storage of all incoming/outgoing messages on a HIPAA secure server Send group messages (as designated by response to triage questions, i.e. smokers who want support, smokers who want reminders only, non-smokers

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seeking support for friend, and non-smokers who want reminders only, or all groups) Ability to create and deliver web-based surveys to the any priority population Gather and store data, instantly available for analysis under same application Program sustainability through web-based opt in to the SMS network Ability to add new keywords, and monitor traffic associated with each word (this can be particularly useful for health districts, where multiple populations and health risks are addressed by separate divisions, each division can use it’s own keyword and therefore incoming messages are routed to the correct staff member) The system supports multiple locations or areas of interest. Archived data can be mined and exported. All interactions with the system are logged. Comprehensive reporting, exportable data Administrator can block specific number, i.e. prank text messages, so as not to waste precious staff time Responses to messages can be triggered automatically according to your specific criteria, if out of the office, or unable to respond to queries, the Triage feature enables you to set up automatic responses to specific messages, in other words, the application will identify the reason for the message and use the Q and A criteria for that particular inquiry

Reliability There are other companies offering a similar service, but many of them are located outside of North America. These services are frequently used to send massive amounts of unwanted spam and as a result, most major North American cell phone carriers now ban these other services from sending messages to their clients. If you choose one of these off-shore providers, there is a very good chance your important message will never arrive. PPTMS sends all messages through our partner, an SMS gateway, located in North America and all their messages are sent through one of the largest, most reliable aggregators in the world, Open Market, also located in the US. As a result, we have never experienced a dropped or undelivered message. Your client’s messages will not be blocked or filtered. It will be just as though the message is being send from cell phone to cell phone.

Simplicity

Other services are difficult to use, with complicated protocols and confusing features you'll never use. Our emphasis is on making it easy to send and receive messages in bulk, or one-on-one individual messages. From creating groups and sending tailored content according to each group’s unique needs, or managing individualized messaging, we have taken great care to design the user interface to function similar to email, or IM. Frontline users will find communication with PPTMS as simple as managing their email. We give you all the tools you’ll need to create and manage a fully featured mobile marketing program. We’ve gained knowledge from developing numerous mobile campaigns over the years and have incorporated our experience into an easy-to-use platform. Other mobile services are often over saturated with commercial clients, and they will sell you some messages and a sparse one-way messaging platform and tell you to go make something happen. We have worked exclusively with public health agencies and realize our work is in the process, rather than the end result. We will work with you at every juncture to build the right campaign that is customized to fit the unique needs of your target groups. Coverage Includes: Boost Cingular / AT&T MetroPCS Nextel Sprint T-Mobile US Cellular Verizon Virgin Mobile US ACS Wireless Amerilink Wireless Arch Wireless Cellcom Cellular One Cellular South Centennial Central Wireless

Cincinnati Bell Cricket Dobson Cellular Edge Wireless Iowa Wireless Metrocall US Midwest Wireless North Coast PCS Ntelos Pacific Bell Qwest Wireless Rural Cell Southwestern Bell Suncom Triton PCS Western Wireless

Price Our competitors charge as much as 20 cents per message and in most cases, they don’t have the user interface to support two-way communication – therefore, you’re buying messages with no way to use them, until you hire a programmer to build you a user interface. We remove all the complication from managing a text message network. Over the past 5 years, the EMS team has developed, and tested the ideal application

for SMS communication in public health, and we are providing unlimited access to the application at no additional charge. Please contact us for a price quote. PPTMS prices our very competitive; more importantly, our ability to serve public health programs is unparalleled. Basic packages include unlimited application access, monthly messages, training, ongoing IT Support. We can have you up and running in minutes. Demonstrations are available. Please contact us by email, under support or call Tom or Jonathan at 805.653.6000.

Analytics/Reports Page Data Is Our #1 Priority We track your data from the moment you sign up! The secure database is able to produce up to the minute traffic reports. We know how important data is in public health, which is why our application will faithfully, and instantly produce a record of all traffic. We have already helped many of our public health clients apply and receive grants through the competitive process, including a three-year Youth Suicide Prevention Grant through SAMHSA, and a two-year Priority Population Tobacco Cessation Grant, through American Legacy, as well as numerous regional and state grants. Our services and reports will help substantiate the need for funding and through innovative health IT solutions, we will help you expand your services and obtain the funds to support them. The health IT industry is booming; PPTMS offers a one-stop solution that major grant makers identify as essential outreach to help health agencies improve the ways in which they communicate with the public. PPTMS reports will give you enormous insight into compliance, measurable success, and ultimately, support you in your quest for sustainability.

PPTMS Clients: Crisis Call Center, Nevada – The first Crisis Center in the Nation to implement emotional support via text message! Kathy Jacobs, CCC Director and her staff, courageously embarked on a truly innovative journey and helped our team hone the project and quickly learn the dos and don’ts of providing crisis support via text. They are the first text message based crisis line in the U.S and they received a grant from SAMHSA to evaluate this amazing work with PPTMS. It should also be noted: Within one day of launch, all staff members were trained on the system and able to respond to text inquiries. And within one day of placing materials in the pilot high school, teens were contacting the Crisis Center, by text message. Website: http://www.crisiscallcenter.org/

National Lifeline (LifeNet NYC, Miami Switchboard in Miami Florida, CrisisLink in Virginia, Didi Hirsch, in Los Angeles, CA) PPTMS helps these agencies comply with their TXT follow-up programs, after a crisis is de-escalated over the telephone hotline, the individual is asked if they would like to participate in the text follow-up program. Then, periodically, participants receive follow-up contact by sms, e.g. “after ur recent contact w/ LifeNet, U requested f-up by txt msg…” Now, staff can conduct their follow work in a less confrontational manner, and participants are using the follow-up services with greater frequency. Txt message offers a private and secure way to communicate about complex social issues, in a way that in now preferred over other methods of communication. Website: http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ Crush Program, Las Vegas Nevada, Southern Nevada Health District, the first text message based smoking cessation program in the Nation, launched in 2007. PPTMS continues to support the Crush program and all their texting needs. The program maintains text communication with over 2,000 individuals regarding living a smoke-free lifestyle in Las Vegas, a community with record smoking rates across all demographics. Recently, we helped SNHD expand their texting services to other divisions, including their award-winning Xpoz program, smoking cessation for Southern Nevada Youth. Website: http://www.socrush.com/ Youth Radio – Providing Sex advice/education and Relationship tips/alerts and life coping skills to teens throughout CA and the US. Website: http://www.youthradio.org/

Where is PPTMS going next? Our current projects will include resource provisioning, through a dedicated shortcode, and working with 211 sites, non-profit agencies that provide regional support to anyone who calls the three-digit number, needing help finding healthcare, childcare, or basic needs. Kathy Jacobs, CCC Director, had the forethought to see the benefit of developing a textbased resource-provisioning tool for the public. CCC will be our pilot site and we are eager to rollout the service to all 211 service providers in the US. Like 411 and 911, 211 is on course to becoming a common household resource. One area of particular interest is 211’s history of providing information, and alerts during

disasters. With Text 211, alerts will be many times more accessible to anyone who signs up for txt alerts. And history has taught us, text messages survive disasters better than any the method of communication, and in recent disasters, text messages saved lives. For example, during and immediately after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast of the United States, SMS was the only mechanism available for much of the country to contact those in the affected areas, due to the small amount of data that is required to send a text message.1 SMS messages are inexpensive and easy-to-use and in recent years the mobile phones that are needed for sending and receiving them have become ubiquitous. SMS 4 HEALTH Communication Needs During and In the Wake of Recent Disasters:

September 11th tragedy and the more recent hurricane and oil spill affecting the Gulf, has drawn attention to need for telecommunications to connect people quickly and efficiently with help and community information. The terrorist attacks created one of the greatest challenges that the United States’ network of community information and referral providers has ever seen. Evidence suggests that the enduring stress and trauma of the tragedy has produced increasing incidences of substance abuse, eating disorders, and domestic violence. For example, twenty-three states have detected an increased demand for alcohol and drug treatment since September 11th.7 Immediately following the attacks, agencies offering crisis support service experienced significantly higher call volume from families looking for victims, individuals stranded in airports, frightened children and concerned parents, individuals reliving other disasters, mentally ill persons feeling overwhelmed, and people looking for ways to give help. Crisis centers connected them with the appropriate organizations. In Atlanta, for example, calls increased 78% from the previous year. Call volume continues to remain significantly higher than last year. And recent trends are showing the demand for text message based support services are reaching record levels. SMS Crisis Alerts – How Texting During Disasters Can Save Lives A UK report, Inclusion Through Innovation: Tackling Social Exclusion Through New Technologies, explores the potential that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have to improve service delivery and quality of life for the most excluded groups, and argues that effective use of ICT is key to addressing exclusion and meeting complex needs. "For instance, mobile phones are being used by homeless people to avoid the problems of not having a permanent address, leaving a mobile number on job applications. Medical results can be texted to the patient without someone else

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CNN Online News Report

answering the phone. And, individuals in rural areas, with limited resources, are able to get the help they need through text message.” The report, published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, argues that 'excluded' people already use technology extensively and that we need to build on this enthusiasm." In the US, the use of SMS during times of catastrophe or natural disaster has proven to have an incredible impact. “Phone lines, fax, and electricity could fail and the only tool you can use is your cell phone2,” said SAF Spokesperson, Carla Shaw. For example, during and immediately after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast of the United States, SMS was the only mechanism available for much of the country to contact those in the affected areas, due to the small amount of data that is required to send a text message.3 SMS messages are inexpensive and easy-to-use and in recent years the mobile phones that are needed for sending and receiving them have become ubiquitous. During natural disasters SMS and radio have been used to provide emergency communication, for example an earthquake Yogyakarta and Central Java in Indonesia killed more than 5,000 people and displaced 1.6 million in May 2006. With support from Internews, a U.S.-based NGO, a radio station and SMS text messaging provided news about relief efforts. In addition to radio broadcasts, important information was sent and received from the newsroom via text messaging. Outgoing messages warned of aftershocks and identified communities that had not yet received government assistance. More than 180 Indonesian journalists distributed and received information through the service.4 A Canadian woman trapped under rubble after the recent earthquake in Haiti managed to send out a text message to the Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa, a place nearly 3,000 miles away. And it saved her life.5 And when the immensely strong earthquake occurred in Chile on Feb. 27, SMS traffic for the carriers’ networks that were not initially damaged surged to as much as ten times the normal hourly volumes for the first 24 hours or so. We managed to get a voice call to them around noon, Eastern time, Saturday, but soon after that, were unable to reach them due to network overload. For the rest of the day, we communicated via SMS without issue.6

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Txting Could Save Lives During Disasters: http://www.socialnetworks10.com/twitter-texting-could-save-lives-duringdisasters 3 4

CNN Online News Report Report, SMS and Radio can be powerful tools during Natural Disasters: http://comunica.org/radio2.0/archives/87

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Woman Trapped Under Haiti Rubble Sends SMS http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2010/01/025300.htm

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Time Magazine, Online Edition: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,1953379,00.html

Effectiveness of mobile-phone short message service (SMS) reminders for ophthalmology outpatient appointments: Observational study7 An SMS text message was sent to patients with scheduled appointments between April and September 2006 in a hospital ophthalmology department in London, reminding them of their appointments. This group acted as the intervention group. Controls were patients with scheduled ophthalmology appointments who did not receive an SMS or any alternative reminder. Conclusion: The use of SMS reminders for ophthalmology outpatient appointments was associated with a reduction of 38% in the likelihood of patients not attending their appointments, compared to no appointment reminder. The use of SMS reminders may also be more cost-effective than traditional appointment reminders and require less labor. These findings should be confirmed with a more rigorous study design before a wider rollout. NEWS US and International SMS Programs Targeting Youth Groups Curbing Truancy A web-based SMS communication system at schools is one of the best things to come out of the mobile messaging revolution in Australia. Companies such as the Australianbased SMSengine provide schools, businesses and sports clubs in Australia with this innovative communication solution. No more bunking off school for kids as a SMS text message is automatically sent to the parents if the child is late or does not arrive at school! Schools that have implemented this system have noted a marked decrease in absenteeism and increased parent interaction with the school. It is not only an effective monitoring system but also an early warning alert if the child has encountered difficulties on the way to school. This bulk text messaging system allows one and two-way communication between the school and parents as well as between staff themselves. The school can directly notify parents of important meetings, dates for parent teacher conferences and ask for confirmation by return SMS of attendance. Besides bypassing the tendency of teenagers not to pass on those important slips to parents, bulk text messaging systems also save on paper and ink. Thus SMS text messaging is cutting costs for the school and saving the environment at the same time! CPR Education Australian Red Cross delegates attended an international seminar in June this year, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the formation of this respected organization. The seminar was held on the site of the Battle of Solferino in Italy where the concept of 7

Elizabeth Koshy, Josip Car, Azeem Majeed, Department of Primary Care and Social Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK. BMC Ophthalmology, http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2415/8/9

the Red Cross, a cross-cultural, international organization was born. The seminar focused on global and local challenges such as HIV/AIDS, climate change, migration and discrimination. The Australian Red Cross organization has a lot to be proud of; they were one of the first countries in the world to roll out mobile CPR instructions. India – SMS for Sexual Assault or Incest Victims PETALING JAYA: Victims of incest and domestic violence who are afraid to come forward can now seek counselling and help through a short messaging service (SMS) hotline set up by Puteri Umno’s public complaints bureau. Bureau chairman Rohaina Abdul Latiff said the service provided another avenue for the victims to report abuse and seek assistance. “Incest victims, especially children or teenagers, may have difficulty in expressing themselves when they face such situations. They may feel embarrassed or ashamed to speak up or fear being punished. Puteri umno public complaints bureau chairman Rohaina Abdul Latiff (right),bureau manager Nashua Fauzun Shahril (centre) is Rohaina's personal assistant Wan Norhayati Wan Mahmood showing off a banner promoting the bureau and its services. “Through the SMS, there is no need for them to face strangers or anyone else when they reveal their problems.”

Suicide Prevention and Crisis Support for Teens and Hearing Speech Impaired in Britain – Winner E-Government National Awards 2007 Samaritans UK launched the pilot of the emotional support via text message service in April 2006. Samaritans are reaching a new, younger audience who are at higher risk of self-harm and suicide through this medium. Suicide is the leading cause of death amongst young men aged 15-34, and two young people self-harm every hour in the UK. This project demonstrates the innovation of Samaritans by striving to reach young people through a method of communication which is vastly becoming second nature to them. Samaritans deserve recognition for their continual effort to keep up with communication technology so that their service is available to everyone, 24 hours a day seven days a week, no matter where they are." The demand placed on the service has exceeded expectations that were projected during the development phase, so much so that in the early stages we have been forced to cease publicizing the number so that volunteers can respond to callers within the standard response time of 90 minutes. Since April 2006 Samaritans volunteers have received and responded to over 211,000 text messages from people experiencing feelings of emotional distress or despair. Almost 60,000 of these have been received since the start of April 2007 while there has been no active publicity of the number. Last month over 100 new callers made contact

with Samaritans via text message, which must be through word of mouth rather than through any form of publicity, demonstrating that the service must be well received by the callers for them to be actively telling other people about how they can reach Samaritans. The service has been well received by the users according to feedback and we have some quotes from callers below which demonstrate how the text service has helped them to find a way through their problems. The text message service is not only giving those experiencing feelings of distress and despair a new method of communication to receive emotional support but it is also enabling them to feel more at ease with Samaritans so that they can then use more traditional methods of contact to reach us. One caller said “The text service is great, it helped me build up the confidence inside of me to phone up and speak to someone “Thanks 4 being there during a black wave; the work u folk do is so valuable. Nite” “Thank u to the person I was texting wiv last nite wen I felt low and lonely. I hope I didn’t dither too much but I knew u’d listen & that’s comforting wen confused wiv thoughts going round and round in my head.”

SMS Sexual Health – Australian Youth In a breakthrough for Australian youth, advice on sexual health is now just an SMS away. A revolutionary new text messaging service targeting 16-25 year olds will offer advice on everything from pregnancy through to sexually transmitted infections direct to their mobile phone. The Australian-first sextxt™ launched today by Marie Stopes International follows research which shows Aussies have one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STIs in the world. Sextxt™ youth ambassador Axle Whitehead said: “the service is designed to tap into the way we communicate these days – through SMS. Sextxt™ is a great way for young people to get answers to sexual health questions confidentially through SMS responses direct to their mobile phone.” By texting sexinfo to 19sextxt users will receive a reply within seconds with seven options for automated assistance on sexual health issues. Support and advice is provided on issues including sexually transmitted infections (STIs), pregnancy, missed pill, broken condom, emergency contraception and unprotected sex. The service also directs young people to a website address and telephone hotline managed by staff trained in counseling for further information.

Landscape: Texting 4 Health

Study conducted by Stanford University in 2008 Key Findings: 95% of mobile phones are text-capable 100 million+ of 254 million U.S. mobile subscribers (~43%) use SMS 41 million Americans send text messages “almost every day” 28.8 billion text messages sent in June 2007 84% of 14 to 27 year-olds able to send basic text message