Turning your adult day care center or developing your new one into a community healthcare education center can have remarkable benefits. As the weeks and months roll by, you need credibility in your community and an ongoing series of word-of-mouth referrals. This can be accomplished by organizing your program as more than what the title says it it.
Surely there is a gerontologist in your area who will come and speak for 1/2 hour on issues affecting aging from managing arthritis to preventing falls to understanding how inflammation in the joints is developed. There is a local case manager who can speak to accessing certain care benefits and there surely is an ear nose and throat physician who can speak to heightening our balance with proper ear health and in the process preventing falls. Your local Department of Public Health may exhibit at a Health Fair you conduct on health oriented resources in your community.
These same practitioners will often also conduct exams and screenings and may be joined by local drug stores who will give flu shots, shingles vaccines, conduct TB tests and advise on disease prevention through their pharmacists.
Add a local radio station broadcasting from your facility and the exposure and resulting benefits are enormous. Important people will know that you exist and your value. Traffic will only increase. Let us know if you need help organizing such an event but trust us when we speak to their value.
That said, its important you organize the event properly. Here are a few tips:
- Invite at least 5,000 people from the community to come in and out all-day. There is strength in numbers. If you have too small a turn-out, exhibitors may not trust your business acumen enough to participate in a second event.
- Mark in advance each table for exhibitors. Do this professionally so everyone knows where everyone belongs.
- Issue a professionally developed Press Release each week the 6 to 8 weeks preceding the event and be sure and follow-up in an effort to obtain press coverage for the event.
- Organize your staff so everyone has a specific function during the event, including a greeter.
- Check to ensure you are doing things in a regulatory compliant way. Does your state require certain credentialing and training for the nurse handling the TB tests?
- Ask exhibitors to arrive early or send you their literature in advance. In this way your tables are organized at the start of the day.
- Issue guidelines to marketers and anyone you officially engage to market the event. You do not want people misrepresenting the event or your program.
You need people around. The buzz that is created by meaningful events with many legs that are professionally organized are the key to getting that done.
Thanks for allowing us to be a part of what it takes to shine in your community.
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