Patients and the public |
1. Focus on increasing awareness about how to identify, respond to and proactively manage serious allergic reactions and triggers. Target groups include people with allergies (especially adolescents and young adults), their families, the public, school personnel, people working in food and hospitality industries and employers. This may include public information campaigns with social media, influencers and celebrities, games, posters, school lessons and other novel approaches. It may also include education sessions, videos, leaflets and posters for target groups and practical ways to support people who may experience anxiety and bullying as a result of their allergy |
2. Empower people to help themselves by coproducing a template for a consistent easy to read/infographic self‐management plan for people managing allergies, including clear guidance about the symptoms of serious allergic reactions and when and how to use adrenaline |
Healthcare professionals |
3. Train existing and future healthcare professionals, including those working in primary and community care and emergency physicians, to proactively support people at risk. Training is needed to support both prevention and management, including how to identify and manage serious allergic reactions, indications for adrenaline and other treatments, the importance of prescribing and showing people when and how to use adrenaline devices, and referring to an allergy specialist and psychosocial support |
4. Upskill health professionals to use quality of life assessments and validated risk assessments routinely, including in primary care and community settings. Empower professionals to direct people to the wealth of resources available, including community peer support groups |
Wider systems |
5. Implement legal and healthcare policies such that serious allergic reactions/anaphylaxis is categorised as a medical condition requiring proactive management. This will help people at risk maintain their right to be included and not discriminated against in all aspects of society, including education and work |
7. Improve access to and legal oversight of approved adrenaline devices, so that patients, nurses, school staff and community workers feel confident using adrenaline quickly when other specialists are not present to oversee. This includes publicly funding and routinely prescribing two adrenaline self‐administration devices for people at risk and improving global access to adrenaline in health, education, work and appropriate public settings |
6. Implement evidence‐based integrated care pathways across healthcare systems so everyone at risk of a serious allergic reaction can easily access risk assessment, education, dietetic support, diagnosis, treatment and follow‐on care, including immunotherapy if appropriate. This includes investing in multidisciplinary personnel to provide support and using a dashboard of indicators to track progress over time |
8. Fund easy access to an evidence‐based package of psychoeducational interventions to address the psychological burden of people living with allergy and their families. This may include online support, individual counselling, group sessions, apps, peer support groups, etc., with evaluation of the most effective approaches and how best to target them to different groups |
Food and hospitality industry |
9. Educate the food, hospitality and travel industries about food allergy versus intolerance, allergen control and the best ways of communicating allergens to consumers by working closely with patient groups. This may include building business cases around the financial and reputational impact if businesses do not train staff and adapt processes |
10. Legislate for consistent food and hospitality industry policies to improve allergen control and communication processes. This includes considering mandatory food allergen labelling using clear wording constructed alongside patient groups (precautionary allergen labelling) |