Can behaviour change marketing help the NHS to save money?
Posted by TeamPC on 2 Aug 2017
Social marketing is at the heart of the NHS’s preventive health campaigning. But how exactly can behaviour change marketing help the NHS to save money, if indeed it can?
A shift toward preventive health measures
We all will at some point in our lives need the services of the NHS. Whether we dread that prospect, or don’t think about it until that times arrives, the NHS is doing its best to respond to the wide-ranging and escalating health issues.
Our healthcare system is struggling
It’s perhaps no news that the NHS is struggling and that change is required to turn it around. Under funded, under staffed and overburdened, it seems that our Government has no quick answers.
Motivating people to take charge
About a decade ago, the healthcare sector, fronted by the NHS and its health partners, decided to adopt social marketing as part of its wider healthcare strategy.
The idea behind this was that by adopting preventive health measures and campaigns, we could all be encouraged to change our health behaviours, and benefit mentally, physically and socially.
The positive consequence for the NHS is a reduced uptake (and need for) health intervention in future years.
Social marketing is designed to deal with specific health, education and social issues, with the ultimate objective of inspiring behaviour change. From promotion of exercise and healthy eating workshops to those most at risk of heart disease, to conveying the risks surrounding legal highs to teenagers, social marketing is on the frontline tackling some of these issues.
It’s not just the NHS that needs to change – we do too
Social marketing does have the power and ability to redress health inequalities across the UK, and to reduce the pressure on the NHS.
Delivered by an experienced social marketing agency, it certainly does have the potential to save the NHS money – but it’s early days and there is much more still to be done, before it starts to save significant sums.
We’re Perfect Circle – an open and honest social marketing agency that delivers life changing behavioural change campaigns. Visit us online at perfect-circle.co.uk
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