Reader Questions
Secrets to successful health fairs
Consider your goal, get community buy-in
Question: How have you made health fairs successful? What sort of planning strategy did you use; how did you decide what to include; and what marketing methods did you use? What part does timing, location, and target population play?
Answer: The most successful health fairs have community buy-in. They are tied to an event that is important to the community, such as the opening of a church or an anniversary of a facility, and therefore draw a crowd, says Peggy Hubert, RN, MSN, a clinical nurse specialist at Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia. However, the success isn’t necessarily in the numbers who attend, either, but in reaching people who are at high risk for a heart attack or stroke or some other disease. "If we did blood pressure screenings and were able to get one person with hypertension to see a doctor, it was considered successful," she explains.
A health fair must be focused and have a goal if it is to be successful. Determine what you want to accomplish, advises Janet Hale, RN, program manager for the health information center at University of Missouri Healthcare in Columbia. Are you targeting a particular population for screening tests, trying to increase awareness, educate the community on a particular topic, or promote your health care system in a public relations campaign?
"We used to bring boxes and boxes of pamphlets on numerous topics to health fairs, and we lugged them there and lugged them back. We couldn’t get our particular educational message across; but focusing on a patient population or topic helps guide promotion and everything," explains Hale.
When people call Hale to request her organization’s participation in their health fair, she goes through a sheet of questions with the contact to determine the fair’s focus and how the health center might contribute. The questions include who the audience is (children, adults, seniors, or families), the age of the target population, and the race, gender, and culture of participants.
The three annual health fairs the center sponsors have themes. One is a maternity health fair, another targets children, and the third focuses on diabetes. To make these fairs successful, Hale looks for community organizations that fit the theme and invites them to participate. For example, she invites Mothers of Twins and the federal government Women, Infants, and Children program participants.
Know what type of health fair is a good fit for your organization, and don’t over extend yourself, says Beth Crispin, MS, health educator at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. Although the health care facility gets about three requests to participate in health fairs each month, it only is involved in three annually. "We choose them for what their purpose is, what their audience is, and also what their reach is," she explains.
One annual health fair they help sponsor draws the second largest crowd in the state of Washington, and is designed to help families become familiar with community organizations and services. At the event, Children’s Hospital operates a zone with several booths and interactive learning activities.
Staff never simply hand out materials at a health fair. "We only participate in a health fair if we can provide interactive, hands-on, health education opportunities that are appropriate," says Crispin.
For example, the event has a pond where children fish for trout. Therefore, Children’s Hospital provides education about water safety by helping kids select a lifejacket that fits and then wearing one while fishing. Parents are given a "prescription" for the size and style of life jacket that best suits their child.
Getting help guarantees success
Whether a health care facility is overseeing the fair, it is a good idea to take part in the publicity and planning if possible to help ensure success. Presbyterian Medical Center is invited to so many small community health fairs, staff created a seminar that teaches people how to plan a community event.
The seminar includes information on timelines, public relations, appropriate topics to include, and how to target population groups. It also shows them a network of agencies that might participate. "We recommended that people contact all the different agencies, such as the American Cancer Society, to see what they would do for free and how they would contribute for a fee," says Hubert.
If participating in the planning process, health care facilities can help organizations, such as churches, select healthy food to serve and connect it to heart health or good nutrition. The food often is in conflict with the health fair theme, explains Hubert. For example, if church members make potato salad, they can alter the recipe to make it more heart-healthy, such as reducing the salt and feature the changes on recipe cards so others can learn to adhere to special diets, says Hubert.
Once the fair is planned, organizations must get the word out. A good way to publicize an event and increase attendance is to create contests for elementary school children, says Hubert. For example, one year, a fair focused on violence reduction. Children were asked to design a poster, create a song, or write a poem that adhered to the theme. The winners were presented with a certificate and prize at the health fair.
For the kids’ day health fair organized by the Health Information Center with University of Missouri Healthcare, staff printed a coloring page on the back of its advertising flyer. "We asked kids to draw a picture of a healthy family and bring it to the health fair," says Hale. Another good way to draw a crowd is to find a co-sponsor in radio or television who will promote the event for free, she says. Traditional mailings, posters, and table tents work well, too.
When another organization is the main sponsor, it is a good idea to review all materials to ensure that your health facility is represented correctly. Also, help promote the event within your organization, advises Crispin. "We help promote events in our newsletter that goes to 40,000 people and on our Web site," she says.
While it is difficult to change lifestyles or health habits at a huge health fair, the event can increase awareness and get people to start thinking about health issues. "If you are trying to create awareness about heart disease, you can do that at a health fair; but if you want to talk in depth to people about cholesterol, it may not be the place to do it," says Hale.
Although she has managed to create more in-depth education at the maternity fair by scheduling mini-seminars on topics, such as controlling labor pains, in general, health fairs are good for showing people where resources are in their community, creating awareness about topics and giving them resources for follow-up, she says.
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