Creating communications excellence

If we are to tackle some of the greatest challenges in health provision, we first need to talk about them clearly.

Health disparity is a monumentally large and complex issue, but one that is simply too important to ignore. In England, there is a 19-year gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least affluent areas of the country. People in the most deprived neighbourhoods, certain ethnic minority and inclusion health groups will experience multiple long-term health conditions ten to 15 years earlier than the least deprived communities. They will spend more years in ill health and die sooner.  So large is this issue that it sometimes seems insurmountable, and the pandemic, cost-of-living crisis and many other factors mean that, in many instances, it is getting worse, not better. However, like anything at this scale, when we break these challenges down into their constituent parts we can tackle – and overcome – each of them, one by one.

It has become increasingly evident that communications plans designed to reach the general public are simply not enough. During the COVID-19 pandemic we were forced to wake up to the fact that, in order to reach as many people as possible, we needed to tailor our campaigns, with a laser focus to consider different cultural attitudes, historical barriers, misconceptions, use of different languages and easy-to-understand messaging, and we needed to learn how best to engage diverse communities.

As healthcare communicators we have a role to play in devising and delivering campaigns that catalyse change. So often this is not about being flashy, it is about listening properly to the communities we are trying to help, so that we put inclusivity and simplicity at the heart of our communications.

Earlier this year, the NHS North East London Cancer Alliance, in partnership with gynaecological charity The Eve Appeal, launched a womb cancer awareness campaign designed to address a striking gap in health outcomes in this disease for women over 45 from Black African, Black Caribbean or South Asian backgrounds. No flash mobs, no stunts – it used real women, their own words, their own clothes, their own passion. And it resonated, not because it was disruptive, but because it was inclusive.

So, when we talk about healthcare for all, let’s not run away with ourselves. Let’s keep it simple.

Tim Cockroft is Founding Director at akt health communications