Are you a comms leader? A policy lead? A copywriter? A UX expert? A project manager? A content designer? A filmmaker?
In health communications, lots of us start off learning one of these disciplines but as we develop our skills over time, we see that they are simply different techniques underpinned with the same principles:
- being clear about the problem you want to fix
- understanding who you need to reach to make this happen, and what you want them to do or feel
- identifying the best medium to reach them
- finding the right language, tone, look, feel and medium to motivate this change.
In my mind, whether your tool of choice is a camera, a phone or a pen, it’s just a means to an end – to help articulate the messages that will make a difference to people’s lives.
Sometimes, the right medium to convey a message is film. That’s why I spent this weekend with a fab team at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation making a film to encourage people with diabetes to get laser eye surgery by showing them it’s not as scary as it sounds.
Not because I’m a filmmaker but because I’m a health communicator and in this case, film was the most effective way to achieve patient engagement.