NATIONAL EYE HEALTH WEEK (NEHW) 

19th – 25th September 2016

 

National Eye Health Week provides a unique opportunity for your practice to come together across the local community as well as nationwide in order to raise awareness of the importance of regular eye examinations and to spread the word about how vision matters.

I encourage you to reach out to your local community and inspire people to think about their eye health.

 During the week, each day focuses on a different theme, which includes:

• You and your eye health
• Nutrition and the eye
• Children’s eye health
• Sight after 60

David Cartwright who is the chair of NEHW explains that by focusing on a different daily theme, it gives more opportunity to communicate and reach out to those groups who would benefit most from regular eye examinations.

4 Steps to Success  

 STEP 1 :  PLAN THE CAMPAIGN

• Plan in advance, setting objectives for your campaign, and target audiences.

OBJECTIVES:

• Raise public awareness of the importance of eyecare
• To promote special offers available during eyecare week
• TARGET AUDIENCE – KID’S & OVER 60’S
• Autumn Equinox falls on 22/9/16 – great opportunity to promote benefits of UV damage.

STEP 2 :  HOW TO TAKE PART

• Simple, easy and FREE.
• To register for a free resource pack, containing leaflets, posters, promotional materials and template press releases, please visit visionmatters.org.uk.
• The website has closed but if you email your request by end of play 31/8/16 you can still apply for a pack. Put in the email subject box ‘Resource Pack Request’ and quote this BLOG.

 STEP 3 :  DECIDING WHAT TO DO

Social Media activity will be massive during this week. Make sure you benefit by ‘liking’ and ‘tweeting!’ Follow these twitter accounts and they’ll be plenty of news to re-tweet.

@NHSEnglandMidE

@Bham_Vision

@myvisionmatters

There is always a BIG media campaign in national newspapers and TV. You can ‘piggy back’ on top of these with local advertising in newspapers, local radio or you can just display the poster.

Other ideas you can try:

• Direct mail letters
• Suppliers promotions
• Window display
• Competitions
• Open days
• Fashion shows
• Prize draws
• Colouring competitions
• Offer Free Transitions or free pairs just for this week
• Vision screening events
• Coffee mornings
• Offer spectacle cleaning and servicing
• Hold contact lens comfort /dry eye workshops or demonstrations
• Write to your MP and get them to visit your practice
• Visit schools for talks or assemblies.

STEP 4:  ASSESS THE SUCCESS

• The NEHW campaign aims to reach people in their everyday lives and encourage them to look after their eyes.
• Did the campaign meet the objectives you set? If not, why not.
• A good ways to assess if newspaper ads work is to attach coupons or vouchers to cut out and bring in or phone for details.

Please do your best to support this campaign and promote the importance of eye health because vision really matters.

Don’t forget to look out for great tweets that you can ‘retweet’ during the week from

@NHSEnglandMidE

@Bham_Vision

@myvisionmatters