Healthy Living Hub - Setting up a Health Promotion Zone

You will find lots of useful information on this page to help you set up a health promotion zone and some useful hints and tips.

What is a health promotion zone?

You will need to identify an area of your pharmacy to set up your health promotion zone.  This needs to be a clearly marked and accessible area where you can display and promote health and wellbeing information. Consider an area where your patients spend the most time to help you position the zone.

What tools can we use?

You can use a range of tools such as a display board, a wall/slatted wall, a table, noticeboard, waiting area, end of the counter, however it should be clearly visible to everyone walking into the pharmacy.

To capture attention, you might want to think about creating a professional header for the zone so it is clearly identifiable.

 

Display information

Try to stick to a single theme or campaign as too many topics will confuse customers. Keep the display neat and tidy where possible. Set up a rota for checking and replenishing your resources.

Consider laminating items especially if they can be used again for future displays (do ensure they are up to date when you come to use them again). This keeps the information looking clean and professional.

Try to make the zone interesting and eye-catching. The aim is for it to act as a conversation starter and plant the seed in the customers mind. This is more likely to have an impact on their motivation to make a change. To make an impact, consider using coloured cards, table cloths, tar cubes, bunting, empty packaging, balloons, leaflets holders etc. The more interesting the display, the more likely customers are to take notice.

Where can I find my resources?

Ensure you keep a stock of healthy living leaflets either on your health promotion zone or for handing out during conversations to signpost to further support or services. When looking for information resources, use reliable, trustworthy and reputable websites from recognised organisations. Take a look at Numark’s resource library for website links.

Signposting

Consider setting up a folder containing a variety of leaflets under different sections such as healthy eating, stopping smoking, alcohol reduction etc. You may want to consider leaflets/posters designed for disabilities and different languages to target the local population.

Try to also include local leaflets as well as national leaflets. Consider local exercise schemes, slimming classes, support groups etc. You could contact local organisations/charities to see if they have any available resources. Some charities often have free resources that can be downloaded or posted out to you. This will also support building a relationship with local contacts.

For support to set up a signposting folder, please visit NumarkNet. 

Planning ahead

Consider using Numark’s health promotion planner  plan your campaigns for the year. Numark’s annual health awareness events page will show you all upcoming campaigns on a handy calendar, which is available to view by clicking here.                                             

Ensure resources are ordered in time, consider timescales to receive these and ensure they are relevant towards the topic. Consider if staff need to complete training or need to be familiar with screening/assessment tool guides which will be used as part of the campaign/event.

Consider running health campaign/events in line with an awareness month for example alcohol awareness in January to run along the ‘Dry January’ campaign.

You could speak to your local are teams to find out the public health campaigns they are requesting pharmacies to be involved in the year, so you can promote them and plan in additional events/campaigns around this.

Find out whether a member of the local public health agency/charity could attend your event to help build up your relationship between the organisation and pharmacy team.

Marketing

You could consider using social media as a way of generating local interest; you will find more ideas available on NumarkNet.

Think local! Could you bring awareness of your event by approaching other organisations to see if they will promote your event for you?

Lastly, don’t forget to record the outcomes of your health campaign or event to form your evidence.  Consider downloading Numark’s health promotion summary sheet. 

Numark’s health campaign briefing sheets

To support our members deliver effective health campaigns, Numark have launched a series of health campaign briefing sheets intended to guide members through many of the major health campaigns.

To access the range of briefing sheets available to support the campaigns, please visit our pages on NumarkNet or the Healthy Living Hub.  This page is a ‘work in progress’ therefore more topics will be added.