Breaking barriers through digital interactive services and social media interventions
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Author(s)
Debby Brant and Rachel Potter
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| Presenter(s) |
Debby Brant Manager, Hull and East Riding Stop Smoking Service, City Health Care Partnership |
Rachel Potter Public Health Marketing Creative Lead, City Health Care Partnership, Hull |
Abstract Since 2009 City Health Care Partnership CIC’s Hull and East Riding Stop Smoking Service (HERSS) has been developing and offering digital services to residents who are ready to stop smoking. The first digital service to be developed was the Ready to Stop Smoking Quit Online Programme, which offers personalised support that can be accessed at any time. Quit Buddy, offers an SMS Stop Smoking Support Service, with automated prompts and has been operational since 2011. In addition, the service has a growing social media presence with active Twitter and Facebook accounts.
HERSS has a range of face-to-face services, however, it is not always possible or preferable for clients to access these forms of support. To overcome these barriers the service has utilised developing technologies to maximise reach and offer different ways to access specialist support, to suit the changing needs of our clients.
The last four years have seen impressive results; the digital services have seen year on year growth in registrations and quits achieved and increased engagement with hard to reach demographics. Efficiency has improved and costs reduced with investment in both services paying for itself within one year of operation. Crucially, service user feedback has been overwhelming positive.
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Presenter biography Debby Brant qualified as a Registered Nurse at Scarborough District School of Nursing in 1983. Since then she has worked within a variety of health settings mainly in the community and particularly in Health Promotion/ Health Education. In addition to working for the NHS she 'joined forces' with the MOD in 1999 as an Occupational Health/Practice Nurse which sparked an interest in supporting Military/Civilian Personnel through Smoking Cessation programmes. This lead to her undertaking a Senior Stop Smoking Specialist post for the Hull and East Riding Stop Smoking Service in 2005 becoming a Service Manager in 2009.
Rachel Potter has considerable experience of working on creative/marketing initiatives linked to public health and health improvement. She has worked in a variety of settings on numerous initiatives and campaigns aimed at different target audiences. These initiatives/campaigns have utilized a range of media and broadcast platforms to promote health improvement and market various public health services.
Over the last three years as Marketing Creative Lead at CHCP Public Health Services Rachel has worked on campaigns, interventions and public health initiatives aimed at promoting Public Health Services across Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
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Source of funding: The Hull and East Riding Service is currently commissioned by NHS Hull.
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Declaration of interest: None
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