How to spread the word on National Home Care Month
November 1, 1999
How to spread the word on National Home Care Month
Get out the message about home care
November is National Home Care Month (NHCM) and with it comes a host of ways to celebrate. Valerie Tulley, director of public relations for the National Association for Home Care (NAHC) in Washington, DC, points out that this month is a "great opportunity to concentrate on building awareness in the community about what home care is and how it benefits local residents."
She suggests using NHCM as a forum in which to "build excitement about home care and the services we provide." Fliers are one way of doing this, she says, as are activities with home care patients. "Anything providers can do to ease the burden on a patient’s family, such as giving them time to go out on the town or simply provide a listening ear so they can talk, is great," she says.
Of course, you shouldn’t just limit yourself to celebrating within your agency. Take this opportunity to show those in your community and local government who may not be aware of the benefits of home care just how important the services you offer are.
One idea, says Tulley, is to hold an open house. "Because so many people are facing the issue of caring for their elderly parents, anything you can do to get the public to notice the issues in home care is worthwhile. We are always talking to the media about what’s going on in the industry. Now it’s the agencies’ chance to get the media’s attention. One way is to invite their congressmen along on home visits so they can better see what it is all about."
If you haven’t started making preparations yet, don’t despair. There are plenty of low-cost options that don’t require too much planning. And there’s always next year’s celebration. "It’s never too early to start planning," she says, "especially if you want to do something like get people from the community involved or even cooperate with other home care agencies in your community to put on something really spectacular."
Here are several suggestions from NAHC geared to target groups:
- Potential customers
• Launch a ribbon-wearing campaign promoting NHCM.
• Host an open house to bring new people into your office. Use this time to answer any questions they may have about home care.
• Coordinate a "Walking Home" walk-a-thon to raise funds for low-income individuals who need home care. Charge an entrance fee to participate and ask a local television or radio station to sponsor the event.
• Display banners and signs announcing NHCM. Major intersections and areas near hospital entrances are good locations.
• Organize a silent auction to raise community funds. Try auctioning donated items such as artwork, hotel accommodations, restaurant certificates, and gift certificates.
• Construct NHCM bulletin boards or information booths at your local health departments and shopping centers.
• Work with local public libraries to feature books and other materials spotlighting home care.
• Ask local businesses and utility companies to print or insert home care information in their November bills.
• Organize a resource fair and seminar series for your community’s caregivers.
- Staff and volunteers
• Consider honoring different types of home care providers on different days or weeks during the month of November. For example, set aside a few days to honor your administrative personnel. And don’t forget: Nov. 14-20 has been designated as National Home Care Aide Week.
• Decorate your office with NHCM posters, banner, and balloons for the month.
• Enlist the help of local businesses in placing a public service announcement with your local television or radio station thanking your agency’s employees.
• Ask patients and families to sign a giant thank-you card for your staff and volunteers.
• Distribute cookies or other treats to your staff and volunteers thanking them for their commitment to home care.
• Post a message on your company’s e-mail system and on your paychecks thanking your staff for their time and dedication.
• Create an in-house bulletin board profiling each of your employees.
• Host an "Employee/Volunteer of the Year" awards event to recognize someone who has gone the extra distance.
• Host a breakfast, luncheon, or picnic to honor all your employees and volunteers.
- Area physicians and referral sources
• Distribute home care information packets to all appropriate physicians.
• Let them know that your agency’s staff are available to visit the doctor personally and work under the physician’s supervision.
• Provide them with copies of the thank-you letters your agency has received from patients and family members who have benefited from your care.
• Provide physicians and referral providers with a free subscription to your newsletter, if you have one. If you don’t, consider creating a quarterly publication targeted at educating physicians to the benefits of home care.
• Present a "Physician of the Year" award to a local doctor who has been the most supportive of home care in your area.
• Distribute novelty freebies such as pens, calendars, or prescription pads with your agency’s name and logo on them.
• Offer to teach a free home care course at an area medical center or volunteer to speak at a staff meeting on the merits of home care.
• Work with area teaching hospitals to develop a home care rotation.
• Encourage your hospital to establish a home care residency program to give physicians a greater understanding of what home care is and what providers do.
• Send e-mail greetings to local managed care and insurance companies wishing them a happy "National Home Care Month" and briefly describing how your agency provides a full spectrum of home care services to area residents.
• Arrange to have home care information distributed with Meals on Wheels outreach programs.
• Sponsor a program of free seminars on what home care does and how to select a home care provider.
• Invite members of the clergy to your agency and teach them about the services you provide.
- Patients and their families
• Develop NHCM "fun sheets" such as crossword puzzles or story games that staff can give to children during home care visits.
• Help families create "stress gloves" by filling latex gloves with colored sand. Encourage them to squeeze the gloves whenever they are anxious or in pain.
• Create a "partnership quilt" out of fabric or paper squares donated by patients, family members, and staff. Glue or weave them together and put the quilt on display in your agency.
• Develop and distribute a parent’s or children’s guide to discussing serious illness and disability-related issues. Include quotes from a home care book to answer the most-frequently asked caregiver questions.
• Honor one of your agency’s most outstanding information givers.
• Sponsor a series of basic first-aid and infant and adult CPR classes for friends and family members of home care patients.
• Coordinate a "Parents’ Night Out" during which agency staff and volunteers care for pediatric patients while parents get together with other parents for an evening away from home.
• Cater a special meal for your elderly patients.
• Ask employees and the local Humane Society to participate in "Share-a-Pet Day" but only bring carefully screened pets into homes as companions.
• Organize a holiday party or other celebration for patients and their friends and families.
• Host a caregiver talent show to highlight the hidden talents of families. Invite your staff and volunteers to participate as well.
- Public officials
• Share positive information about your agency, including awards and recognition, with legislators and their staffs.
• Host an annual legislative breakfast to hear legislators’ concerns and to voice your perspective on home care and the most critical issues it faces as an industry.
• Sponsor an NHCM luncheon or banquet honoring national, state, and city legislators who have actively supported home care.
• Volunteer to work on the campaigns or serve on the health ad hoc committees of your most supportive legislators or promising candidates.
• Contribute to the campaigns of home care’s strongest supporters and, if possible, offer to host a fundraiser for them.
• Mobilize a coalition of groups in your community that share home care’s views and concerns. Meet regularly to develop strategies for lobbying your local politicians.
Source
• Valerie Tulley, Director of Public Relations, National Association for Home Care, 228 Seventh St. SE, Washington, DC 20003. Telephone: (202) 547-7424.