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Hi all,

As the Public Relations Officer for the APodA (Vic) I'm interested in getting some feedback/ideas from all of you wonderful pods out there about the types of promotional activities that you feel are of the most benefit to you all.

Some of the things I am interested in finding out about are:

1. Do you like/enjoy/have time to volunteer your service to promote podiatry at general events, such as fun runs, seminars etc on weekends?

2. What type of PR resources are you lacking? E.g. brochures, presentations, etc.

3. What are your thoughts about Foot Health Week - what do you see its role being? How relevant is it to you?

I basically want to know what sort of promotions are most suited to you all, what has worked in the past, what hasn't, what you enjoy or find beneficial, etc.

Does anybody have any thoughts they could share?

Katrina Richards :)

Katrina - welcome back .... how was your experience in the real world

What do we want from PR:

1) More patients through the doors paying more $
2) Better public status/impressions of us
3) Higher calibre of student applying to Uni

The problem is only half of what we do actually works ---- trying to determine which half that is in advance is very problematic.

I agree that we need to ask the hard questions about what we do and what actually works. There may also be a paradox between what works and what members expect to see the Association doing.

Foot Health Week - I think its a waste of time as all the evidence is that "theme'" weeks do not work in altering public perceptions.

Brouchures - how do they actually contribute to (1), (2) & (3) above? Members like them, but do they actually make a difference????

__________________
Craig Payne
Department of Podiatry
La Trobe University
Melbourne, Australia
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/podiatry
__________________________________________________ ___________________________________
God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things - right now I am so far behind, I will never die.
The views expressed above are those of the author and not that of La Trobe University
This is where I am, where are you?

I agree with Craig :)

Wouldn't it be great to pool the current research on what works/does not work, in health promotion generally, and in podiatry specifically?

I did a little NHS health promotion work a few years ago, and it was definitely
not based on any credible research!

Cheers,
Davidh

1. Do you like/enjoy/have time to volunteer your service to promote podiatry at general events, such as fun runs, seminars etc on weekends?

Activities like this can be very rewarding and bring much personal satisfaction to participants. Once started, of course, there needs to be a maintained presence and this is often left to the few to carry on.

2. What type of PR resources are you lacking? E.g. brochures, presentations, etc.

There appears to be a wealth of information out there.

3. What are your thoughts about Foot Health Week - what do you see its role being? How relevant is it to you?

I have always had serious doubts about the title of such events (not just in Australia) but in OZ and if memory serves it is A Pod C's Foot Health Week and to me that confirms the purpose is to promote client dependency on podiatry, where as I view health education as 'empowering people ' to make informed choices about their own life style. Provided the two things are not mistaken then Foot Health Week or Month can do no harm. I doubt whether it works as a draw card to the profession but can be a load of fun and hard work to the participants. I think it does give a public identity to a profession, which is only ever appreciated by clients.

I do think there may be some room for intelligent networking and have suggested more than once the idea of getting podiatry included within the community commitment from tv soaps. You can imagine the impact of a leading Neighbours character, stricken with diabetes mellitus who has to attend his podiatrist. There is precedent and in the UK Coronation Street, years ago Albert Tatlock (uncle to Ken Barlow) had a festering toe, which required the attention of a chiropodist. A romance blossomed between the female chiropodist and Ken and to make it credible the lady had to appear once per week. Literally thousands of complaints were received at local podiatry services demanding to know why Albert Tatlock could get a chiropodist to visit him every week and their loved ones had to wait three months for treatment.

Now that is my kind of propaganda

What say you?

__________________

Cameron Kippen, Podologist and Shoe Historian




Cameron Kippen

There were comments in this thread:
http://www.podiatry-arena.com/podiatry-forum/showthread.php?t=435
about foot health week.