What Keeps Me Well - A Pictoral Report

At the start of 2016, Healthwatch Wandsworth was looking at ways in which young people would engage in online discussions about health and social care. Find out about a campaign the young people created and the responses they got from local people.

Healthwatch Wandsworth is all about your voice having an influence on the delivery and design of local health care services.

What we did

We found that young people were not engaging with our Facebook or Twitter pages as much as we had hoped, and we wanted to develop a more effective way of engaging with them online.

After much research, we found that young people mostly used Instagram—an online social media platform.

Based on this information, in February 2016, Healthwatch Wandsworth decided to create an Instagram page.

We decided to trial the use of Instagram, beginning with a health focused campaign called #whatkeepsmewell.

Information about the campaign

The campaign aims to engage young people and the wider community, by encouraging them to think about the things they do and the people in their lives that may help to keep them well.

We felt that using images was a great way to inspire and encourage people to take part in this campaign.

To develop our concept and gain further insight into the perspectives of young people, this campaign was presented to the Wandsworth Youth Council in March of 2016.

They felt that the campaign was interesting, that it got people thinking about their overall health and that it would help others.

They also suggested ways we could improve our reach.

Here are some of their comments.

  • “Celebrity: Stormzy”
  • “Bridge the gap between young people”
  • “Youth Clubs”
  • “An ad on Instagram”
  • “School

Response

The responses to the campaign have been uplifting.

We have had over 120 individuals take part.

Such a simple question, in a simple format, comes with a whole range of answers and really makes people think about what they hold dear in their lives.

Some of the most popular responses we have had to the question ‘what keeps you well?’ included:

  • family and friends
  • healthy food
  • pets
  • keeping fit (whether through fun activities or intentional exercise)
  • music.

At each of our subsequent outreach events, we asked members of the public to think about and share with us ‘what keeps them well’. With the permission of each participant, we posted pictures of them along with their responses to our Instagram account.

To read about a case study and volunteering programme have a look at our Pictoral Report.

What Keeps Me Well Report

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