(June 2009)  Pituitary Awareness Week is the final week of September every year.  Pituitary Awareness Week 2009 will be 20 - 27 September. 

It's our 15th Anniversary this year and we have decided to mark this milestone in a big way by letting people know who we are, what we do and what issues matter to our community. Our campaign this year is called:

15 Years - 15,000 Letters - £15,000

We're asking you (and your partner, your family, your friends and your colleagues) to send campaign letters during Awareness Week to people who can make an immediate difference and our aim is to send out 15,000 letters!

We are organising the Strawberry Line Walk again this year but we really want to encourage you to organise local events to raise money for The Foundation - our target is £15,000.

For full information about this year's Awareness Week, please see our page in the Events section.  (go to Events)

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Leaflet Project

(June 2009)  In response to the Needs Analysis and Patient Satisfaction Survey carried out in 2006 (see below), the Pituitary Foundation is undertaking a leaflet library revamp and update.  The information in all of our published titles will be updated and enhanced and we will introduce new titles. 

We have already published:

• NEW  Hydrocortisone: Advice for the Pituitary Patient
• NEW  Living with Infertility
• NEW  Pyschological Impact of a Pituitary Condition: Diagnosis and Treatment
• NEW  Your Journey: Living With a Pituitary Condition
• UPDATED  The Pituitary Gland, Its Disorders & Hormones Explained
• UPDATED  Acromegaly
• UPDATED  Cushing's
• UPDATED  Diabetes Insipidus
• UPDATED  Pituitary Surgery & Radiotherapy

In the coming year, we will be introducing leaflets on weight gain and pituitary disease; a family range of leaflets for parents with pituitary children; and leaflets for children and young adults.

This is an enormous project which will take 12 to 18 months to complete.  It will also require a great deal of expert time and funding.  We would like to thank the many endocrinologists as well as the UWE team for volunteering to share their expertise. 

If you would like to donate to The Pituitary Foundation to help us with projects like these or our many other programmes and services, click here.

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Patient Satisfaction Survey

(UPDATE - October 2008) The team at the University of the West of England (UWE) completed another social research project to help us better understand our members' experience.  In July 2007, the UWE team sent 1,000 surveys to a random sample of members of The Pituitary Foundation.  They received 490 completed returned surveys.  The goal for this project was to assess satisfaction with diagnosis, treatment decisions, information access and managing conditions as well as the role the services and programmes The Pituitary Foundation during the pituitary journey.

We have assessed the results of this survey and we will utilise them, along with the Needs Analysis (see below) to evaluate and improve the services we offer.  Further, we hope to use the results of this survey to inform the medical community about the experience of our members, to increase awareness and to improve patient satisfaction. 

You can read the results of the Patient Satisfaction Survey here:  Patient Satisfaction Survey Final.pdf (278.98 KB)

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Needs Analysis

(Updated May 2008)  The Pituitary Foundation, with generous support from the University of the West of England (UWE), launched a Needs Analysis in 2006. The goals of the Needs Analysis were to ascertain:

• Do we understand about the ways in which having a pituitary condition impacts on patients?
• Do we know enough about how pituitary patients are affected by the services they receive?
• Do we know about other services or support that people would like?

We had a wonderful response from the pituitary community for this analysis.  The results have been published extensively and can be read here:    Needs Analysis Report.pdf (344.11 KB)

(The Pituitary Foundation will be increasing our leaflet library to address some of these needs - see above).

Did you find this information useful?  This information has come to you through the kind support of our donors, many of them pituitary patients and carers of pituitary patients. If you would like to help to ensure that this service continues to be available, please contribute by clicking on the button:

Your donation will be secure and GiftAid will be assessed for UK taxpayers, increasing your donation by up to 28%.  Or send a cheque, payable to The Pituitary Foundation, to:  The Pituitary Foundation, PO Box 1944, Bristol, BS99 2UB.

Please help us continue to provide crucial information to the pituitary community by donating today.