How to write for HSE digital services - Content principles

We provide healthcare information for everyone in Ireland.

We know that people often come to us when they are sick, worried, or distressed.

Research shows that stress affects comprehension. People find it hard to understand information when they are in distress. That’s because stress adds to our cognitive load.

So, we must work even harder to ensure that our content is clear, accurate and reliable.

To achieve this, we:

• use data and evidence
• meet user needs
• write so it's easy to understand us
• work hard to make our content clear for users
• own the content design, experts own the facts
• work with other teams to ensure content reaches our users
• ensure content is safe and trustworthy
• do not produce more content than we can professionally maintain