November is National COPD Awareness Month

With early diagnosis and treatment, people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), can improve their quality of life and breathe better.

The month of November provides the COPD community with a distinct time to come together with one voice to focus on increasing awareness of the disease. Across the country, organizations are conducting outreach and holding events to bring greater visibility to COPD and to encourage people to recognize its symptoms and seek diagnosis and treatment earlier.

We hope you will join the Learn More Breathe Better^SM program in our efforts to promote COPD resources and educate others. Here you'll find COPD resources including handouts and fact sheets for patients and caregivers and health and community professionals to download or order print copies. As you help raise awareness throughout November, join us in focusing on the following weekly themes:

Week	Theme	Resource Suggestions
1	What is COPD?
2	Diagnosing COPD
3	Managing COPD
4	Living with COPD

Find additional resources to share throughout the month of November below.

Publications

Order or download COPD handouts, facts sheets and more. Many of these resources are available in English and Spanish.

Breathing Better with a COPD hand out

Publications for Patients and Caregivers: Printable and shareable tips for living with COPD, as well as information that you can use in discussions with your loved ones and health care provider(s).
Publications for Health and Community Professionals: Resources to help patients and their families and caregivers learn more about signs and symptoms of COPD.

Social Media Resources

At the links below, you will find suggested posts for Facebook and Twitter that you can customize. Don’t forget to tag @BreatheBetter on Facebook and Twitter and use the #COPDMonth and #BreatheBetter hashtags so we can like and share your content.

Social media resources: Text and images to share on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
State-specific graphics: Find and share the image for your own state

Traditional Media Resources

Not using social media? To get your message out, you can announce National COPD Awareness Month in your internal and external publications; reach out to local media and encourage them to include stories on COPD; and encourage your local radio stations and news outlets to run public service announcements (PSAs).

Best practices for working with media: Tips for reaching out to media outlets
Sample news announcement: Share this from your own organization in your newsletter, blog, or website
Talking points: Conversation starters for external engagement
Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and Videos: Videos and radio scripts to share with your local tv station