I spent my summer internship in the Taipei City Health Department's
Methadone Clinic, located at Kunming Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan.
Methadone replacement therapy gives injection drug users (IDUs) an
opportunity to get treatment for their addiction, and also reduces the infection rates for diseases transmitted through shared needles, such as AIDS and hepatitis. However, drug use and HIV are both highly stigmatized in Taiwan, so it is difficult to increase awareness of the clinic through traditional advertising methods. As a result, one
Kunming Hospital physician estimated the clinic was reaching only 10% of its target population.

As part of the internship, I designed and piloted a Chinese-language
peer-to-peer advertising campaign to increase awareness of the clinic among Taipei City IDUs and encourage them to become patients. I created two written slogans in Chinese based on data gathered from interviews with IDUs: "Put down the pen and raise a cup!" and "Throw out Number 4, it's better to come and drink!" "Pen" is a Chinese slang term for "syringe" among IDUs, and "Number 4" is a slang term for heroin that refers to the substance's purity compared to other drugs.

The slogans were edited to follow the three-character or four-character pattern of classical Chinese literature to make them easier to remember, then tested for comprehension in a focus group of clinic patients. Finally, the slogans were printed on stickers that
were attached to candy, which patients were given daily after drinking Methadone to take away Methadone's bitter medicinal taste. The patients were also encouraged to take the candy and share it with their friends.

Although the project was a lot of work, I really enjoyed working with
the patients and becoming a part of their community. The patients in
turn said they liked free candy, so they were happy to be the "little
white mice" in this experiment. After a few weeks, I gave the patients a short survey to see if they remembered the slogans or the pictures on the stickers, and also asked all incoming patients if they saw or heard of this candy from any of their friends. My results included an awareness rate of 56% among new patients (who had learned about the candy from their friends), and a recall rate of nearly 30% among current patients (which means the slogans were easy to remember and culturally appropriate).

The medical director, Dr. Muh-Yong Yen, was very pleased with the results and decided to continue the program after the internship ended. I was glad to hear that this candy project will continue to help Taipei City heroin addicts lead healthier lives.

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