Campaign resources for NHS England’s HelpUsHelpYou pharmacy campaign

NHS England has launched the #PharmacyAdvice campaign under the #HelpUsHelpYou brand.

The aim of the campaign is to encourage the public to use their local community pharmacy as their first choice for clinical advice common health concerns such as coughs, colds, sore throats, tummy troubles and aches and pains. The campaign will help to further build the public’s trust and confidence in community pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and the pharmacy team as providers of care, and ensure minor illnesses are effectively managed in the right place.

Help Us, Help You involves advertising (including TV), partnerships, PR, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), and specific Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and disability groups’ communications. It runs from 4 February – 31 March 2019. Advertising is targeted to all adults this year, with a secondary focus on parents of children under 12.

Campaign resources:

A pack of resources has been sent to all community pharmacies in England. The outer packaging is clearly labelled with a green, NHS-branded sticker. The pack includes a double-sided window sticker, shelf wobblers, poster, information cards and a dispenser.

All other resources are available via Public Health England’s Campaign Resource Centre. You will need to register to use the CRC but all resources are free and include:

All campaign posters, including those for other healthcare settings.

PR Toolkit which contains all the key messages, Q&A and draft articles for newsletters.

Social media toolkit, including all film clips and suggested Facebook posts and tweets.

An advert for use on digital screens in pharmacies and GP surgeries.

What you can do

NHS England asks community pharmacies to support the campaign (one of the 6 campaigns included in the community pharmacy contract) by:

Prominently displaying the materials in the pharmacy, in the window and alongside relevant over-the-counter products.

Using the information card to remind customers to visit a pharmacy next time they need clinical advice about a minor health concern.

Ensuring all staff members are briefed about the campaign to ensure that they are fully aware and, where appropriate, are ready to offer clinical advice for people with minor health concerns.

Registering for the Campaign Resource Centre and use the posters, articles, film clips, tweets and other materials. You will need to download resources onto your Desktop before uploading them into Twitter or into a Powerpoint or Word file.

Following @nhsuk and all the media GPs and pharmacists, and retweet films and posts throughout the campaign; or download the films and do some tweets, or Facebook and Instagram posts, making sure you use #HelpUsHelpYou and #PharmacyAdvice and copy in others so they can share and spread the message.