Barking & Dagenham PCT Case Study
Challenge:
K+R was appointed by Barking & Dagenham PCT to raise the profile of the borough's two walk-in centres. The objective was to steer people away from using local A&E services for minor ailments and increase attendance at the local walk-in centres located in Barking and Dagenham. A key aim was to target difficult to reach audiences who were using A&E departments inappropriately, achieve widespread understanding of the local health services available and influence patient behaviour.
Strategy:
Our strategy was to design an entertaining and memorable campaign theme entitled Walk this Way, to guide understanding of the services available and how they should be used and to direct people to the walk-in centres and other relevant services.
Our approach was to capitalise on routes and mediums that reached as many people as possible in the heart of the community. This included looking at ways of bringing the campaign to life and accommodating low literacy levels and various ethnic communities where English is not a first language. The walk-in centres were open at different times and provided different levels of service, so it was important to manage expectations.
To maximise the impact of resources, our approach was to capitalise on the networks that already existed from PEC and community nurse meetings to links with charitable and community organisations.
A targeted media relations programme allowed the aims of the campaign to be explained in more depth and reach the wider community.
Tactics:
A grass roots approach was taken to promote our messages by word of mouth with the roll out of a Walk this Way roadshow in busy shopping centres and community venues across the borough. Key components included: entertainers linking into the campaign theme, in the form of nurses on stilts and John Cleese look-a-like performing his Ministry of Silly Walks. In addition, promotions staff in branded t-shirts handed out balloons and information, supported by music playing the three versions of the Walk this Way rock song to grab attention and draw a crowd.
Eye-catching Walk this Way branded postcards were distributed through the roadshows, direct mail and other channels including local newspapers, community organisations, public buildings such as libraries and health centres, information packs for teenage mums, voluntary sector groups and professional networks for GPs, pharmacists, dentists, community nurses and opthalmologists.
Community ambassadors were recruited to verbally promote the campaign to hard to reach audiences in the community and overcome any language barriers, and they were provided with supporting translated materials. Sessions were held in Lingala/French, Polish, Albanian, Urdu, Bengali, Swahili, Punjabi, Turkish and Arabic and reached over 1,000 people. Walk this Way posters printed in various languages (those most commonly spoken in the borough) were distributed to internet cafes, health centres, libraries, shops, community centres and ethnic minority groups to reach large numbers of people in different places.
An advertising campaign was run across local newspapers, tube stations and local bus rears and interiors. This was supported by a media relations programme targeting local, ethnic and community media to highlight the importance of and benefits of using the right services. The campaign was launched in the run up to Christmas, the busiest time in the year for A&E services and followed-up with a drip feed of news stories around the roadshows and extended GP surgery hours and features were placed in community titles.
Online activity included a screensaver which was produced and distributed to internet cafes to upload onto their computers to complement postcards and posters and the campaign had a dedicated page on the Barking & Dagenham PCT website and posted information on other community websites.
An internal communications programme promoted the campaign to all PCT staff to ensure they helped promote the key messages and that the public received consistent messages regardless of which health professional they came into contact with.
Third party stakeholders such as religious centres, ethnic and equality groups and charities aimed at the elderly were also harnessed to act as ambassadors for the campaign and spread the message.
Results:
- 100,000 postcards and 550 posters were distributed and over 1,000 people were directly spoken to about the walk-in centres in their own language by Community Ambassadors and provided with information
- Five internet cafes promoted the campaign and the community roadshow was taken to 11 different locations across the borough. Media coverage was secured in the local media including Time FM 106.8, Yellow Advertiser and Barking and Dagenham Recorder
- Patient numbers at the Upney Lane walk-in centre in Barking have risen by 54% since the campaign was launched in November 2007 to the end of November 2008. The centre now treats over 2,000 patients a month compared to just over 1,000 a year ago. Manager Linda Dennis said: "The campaign has achieved a major impact in the borough."
- Attendance at the Broad Street walk-in centre in Dagenham has risen by 43% over the same period. The centre treated an estimated 2,604 patients in October 2008 compared to 1,814 patients in November 2007.
- A&E attendance at Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust, which operate the two nearest A&E departments, has dropped from 51,023 (2007 final quarter figures) to 44,792 up to June 2008, resulting in a 14% reduction in attendance since the campaign began.
