Social Marketing and NHS Health Scotland
Social marketing offers a method of changing the behaviour of individuals. It allows us to promote health in ways that are tailored to local communities by engaging them in an active way. Here we showcase some of our recent social marketing activity, and show how we support Health Boards to develop local social marketing projects.
Paediatric overweight service, Tayside
NHS Health Scotland is working with NHS Tayside on a dedicated project to increase the number of referrals to the local paediatric overweight service. The aim of the service is to support children aged 2-15 years and their families to manage their weight by establishing healthy family lifestyles through diet, physical activity and reduced screen time.
North West Kilmarnock breastfeeding project
NHS Health Scotland is working with partners in NHS Ayrshire and Arran on a pilot project to increase the number of newborn children exclusively breastfed in North West Kilmarnock. The intention is that breastfeeding becomes the social norm for women in this area.
Fife breastfeeding support project
NHS Fife and NHS Health Scotland are working together to boost breastfeeding rates, and reduce the rate of early cessation of breastfeeding. The project team has developed an action plan to improve antenatal and postnatal support for new mothers, helping Fife´s Breastfeeding Peer Support team to work better with community midwives and health visitors.
Whitecrook smoking cessation project
NHS Health Scotland is working with West Dunbartonshire Community Healthcare Partnership as part of the Whitecrook Equally Well Test Site. The target for the test site project is to reduce smoking prevalence by 2.5% in Whitecrook to 37.7% over two years. To achieve this, we aim to increase the number of people signing up for and attending stop smoking groups.