Two hundred children are diagnosed with Crohn's disease each year in Australia and yet there has been almost no public information about the disease to help them cope with the diagnosis ... until now.

Now, thanks to a UTS Shopfront project with support group, Parents of Children with Crohn's Disease and Dr Andrew Day, Head of Paediatric Gastroenterology at the Sydney Children's Hospital, an attractive, detailed information booklet has been produced to give to children upon diagnosis with with the disease.

IBD INFO: An Introduction to Crohn's & Colitis is designed to be used as the basis of conversations with parents and hospital staff. It includes detailed information about the disease as well as available treatments, medications, support services and other relevant topics. Included is a special pull-out section for children to give to teachers to help them understand how their disease may affect the their time at school.

The contents of the booklet were written by Dr Andrew Day, and a group of Visual Communications students designed the layout, together with a bookmark with a glossary which can be referred to while reading the booklet. The group also designed a food diary, calendar and poster. UTS Shopfront arranged for printing of the materials, which wil be distributed to specialist hospitals.

Parents of Children with Crohn's Disease representative, Nick Nicolopoulos, said, "“On behalf of Parents with Children with Crohn's Disease and Dr Andrew Day, we wish to thank Shopfront and UTS students for the production of the materials to support 200 children diagnosed with Crohn’s in Australia each year, and their carers. You have been inclusive and consultative in producing the publications and your efforts in designing and producing all materials are very much appreciated.”

He added, “We congratulate the students and Shopfront in ensuring we live in a society were connections are made between those who have the capacity, capability and knowledge with the less fortunate, disadvantaged and under-resourced groups in our community. The deliverables of this project will ensure that each child admitted to hospital with Crohn’s Disease knows more about their Disease. It will make a difference because for the first time kids with Crohn’s will have information about their condition that prior to this project was aimed at adults and not them.”   

Credits:

The students were Gloria Chan, Adella Christy Muljosardjono, Adam Paterson, Emma Raine and Michell The, supervised
by Jacqueline Morony (Design, Architecture & Building).

Pictured is the design for the booklet cover.