The
idea of 'marketing' services and seeking out patients for some in the NHS is
seen as a bit of a taboo, even for experienced communicators, like myself, who
have worked in NHS communications and public relations for over 11 years (and for over 18 years in total).
 |
| 'Change the way you think' campaign poster |
Very often
we have great service and staff stories to tell and this can be done very easily through
local media and increasingly, through social media. Sometimes we have an
even bigger message that we must tell as many people as possible and we need to
turn to marketing tactics to help spread the word.
However
when spreading that word is also about a subject such as mental health, it gets
trickier again. For some this is a taboo, something we can't even chat
about with mates at the pub. In fact it's just those people our current
mental health campaign is aiming to reach.
Improving
Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT for short in the NHS filled world of
jargon and acronyms) exist to help people find ways to cope with emotional
stresses and strains, depression and anxiety that just won't go away and the
overwhelming feelings some of us can be faced with at one point or another in
our lives.
Across
the country these services get a poor reputation as they're really hard to
access due to waiting times being up to a year in some places. We have great commissioners who have ensured these services have
good resources so anyone who needs to can get help the same day - you can even join one
of our stress management seminars the following week.
But
we just don't think enough people know about this service. So we have
enlisted the help of the creative types at DS.Emotion and we've been working together on ideas for a
campaign to make people think again about mental health services and to think
if they could actually benefit from the help and support of our skilled team.
Put
simply ,our campaign says to people with emotional problems, those feeling
stressed or anxious, "Time to change the way you think" - and for
those who access our service, that's just what we aim to do.
It's
been no mean feat; in just around a month we've discussed ideas and concepts to
really try and help to change the way people think, reviewed and tested
messages, designed and tweaked creative visuals and launched the
campaign. In about a month! We're really proud of the work we've created
with DS.Emotion and the support we've had from the experts at Boutique Media and from our colleagues in the IAPT team
and others across our organisation.
As
you read this, our really important messages are on local radio in Leeds, on
buses around the city, at railway stations and on social media - they'll be
dropping through thousands of letter boxes around Leeds in the next couple of
weeks too.
Awareness
of mental health issues has changed radically in recent years, we have a great
service in Leeds to help you or someone you may know, so let's all change the
way we think about mental health.
Gillian
Neild, Communications, PR and Marketing Manager, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS
Trust
@GillianNeild
A good article outlining how social media can be put to positive use in accessing, supporting and encouraging engagement from those most in need.
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