Your health clinic may be in the business of fixing obvious physical injuries, but many people that come through your clinic might be struggling with something a bit harder to see.
Mental health is a serious issue affecting millions of people around the world. In fact, nearly 20% of adults in the U.S. struggle with some sort of mental illness. To help more people in your clinic and around your area, here are a few tips to manage a mental health awareness campaign at your health clinic.
Table of Contents
Think about your end goal
The first step to an effective mental health campaign for your health clinic is to think about what you want to accomplish.
Many mental health campaigns start (and end) by just wanting people to feel better. Companies make a single social media post that says “You’re not alone” with a picture of someone with their head in their hands and think that’s all they need to do. But that doesn’t provide any real steps to help people struggling with mental health.
What’s your end goal for the campaign, and what action do you want people to take? Whether you want to showcase your mental health classes or persuade people to seek help, there should be some kind of action or goal for your campaign.
Keep messaging engaging, compelling, positive, and even fun
Struggling with mental health is difficult enough. There are so many mental health campaigns with images of people struggling and negative messaging, but that’s not what people need to feel better. In fact, they need the opposite!
Once you know your end goal, it’s time to create the messaging. No matter what type of campaign you want to create, always keep messaging engaging, positive, and even fun. Negative messaging just reinforces the idea that struggling with mental health is bad. It might be bad for you, but you want to avoid making people feel like they’re bad or weird for feeling the way they do.
Use flyers, posts, and videos filled with people looking happy or engaged. Try to avoid the stereotypical images of people looking down or struggling. People struggling with mental health already know what that’s like; they don’t need visual reminders.
Spread the word on multiple channels
The entire point of a mental health campaign is to help people. So to get your messaging out, you have to go where people spend their time. Once you determine your messaging, spread the word on multiple channels. Think about using at least the following platforms:
- Social media
- Physical posters and flyers in your clinic, around town, in schools, etc.
- Your health clinic’s website
- Email campaigns
The more channels you use, the more people you can reach, and the more people you can help.
Use a variety of different content
When it comes to mental health, everyone struggles with something different. Well, the same is true for content effectiveness. While some people might enjoy a blog or video, others might prefer a simple poster or static image.
Using a variety of content helps ensure your mental health support campaign will resonate with more people. These are just some of the types of content you can use for your mental health awareness campaign at your health clinic:
- Motivational posters
- Personal testimonials
- Blog posts
- Videos
- Images
- Gifs and memes
- In-person presentations
It’s also important to use only high-quality content. Using content that looks like it was spliced together quickly in Microsoft Paint makes it look like your health clinic doesn’t actually care — which is the complete opposite of what your mental health campaign is supposed to say!
If you’re better at caring for patients than designing high-quality graphics, that’s okay. There are plenty of templates for mental health posters online. That way, you can design professional-level images without needing professional-level design skills. Just choose the template you like best, fill in your messaging, and you’re ready to print or post online. It’s that easy.
Include a clear call to action
There should be something that your mental health awareness campaign leads to. Whether it’s to join a class, reach out to your friends to see how they’re doing, or even to open up to others, make sure your campaign has a clear call to action (CTA).
Your CTA should invite people struggling with mental health issues to take positive steps and potentially even seek help. If your health clinic has a psychology department, you could even include the contact information for some of your staff members who could help those struggling with mental health issues.
Support those struggling with mental health
Mental health issues aren’t something to take lightly. Many people across the country struggle with mental health, and they don’t always feel comfortable reaching out for help.
By running a mental health awareness campaign at your health clinic, you can support those who might have mental health issues and encourage them to seek support. But before starting a new campaign, figure out what the goal of your campaign will be, use positive messaging, spread the word through various channels, use a variety of content, and include a clear call to action.
If you take all these aspects into consideration, you can help your patients, employees, and others in your area take control of their mental health and seek help if necessary.
