Planning helps to get the most from your activities
Getting the most out of your campaign for National Self-Care Week takes planning and here are some tips and ideas on where to start.
What's on this page?
Aims and objectives
It is important to have clear aims and objectives for what you are hoping to achieve with your National Self-Care Week initiative.
Aims are long term goals, here are examples:
- to engage people in self-care behaviour
- to help smokers give up smoking
- to introduce self-care approaches in the surgery, workplace, borough etc
- to work with pharmacies to support the local population’s health literacy
- to engage students in activities to protect their mental wellbeing
Objectives are more short term, examples would be:
- to introduce self-care aware consultations to help people take care of their own health and wellbeing
- to help people with diabetes understand healthy nutrition and manage their health
- to launch a website / service / programme
- to engage students in a fitness regime
Planning your Self-Care Week project
Once you have agreed your objectives, put some thought into how you propose to reach them, whether it is through promotion, activities, campaigning or all three.
For tips and ideas, it might be worthwhile finding out about previous self-care initiatives, Self-Care Week award winners have produced case studies available on the Self-Care Forum website.
Working with others
The Self-Care Forum is always keen to encourage collaborative working whenever possible.
It is a way of pooling resources, (financial and manpower), increasing promotional reach and engendering effective local relationships. Here are some examples of potential local partners:
- Community pharmacists
- Surgeries and integrated health organisations
- Schools, colleges and universities
- Local authorities and libraries
- Third sector organisations and local Healthwatch
- Businesses including gyms and therapy services
- NHS trusts, ambulance and fire services
Self-Care Week Branding
Whether you are implementing low key activities or a more ambitious large-scale initiative it is good to use the Self-Care Week icon, which is available on the Self-Care Forum website, to brand your campaign. It means your audience will identify your Self-Care Week activity which will help reinforce and strengthen your self-care messages.
Using the same images to brand your campaign locally will also help to connect Self-Care Week activities at a regional and national level making it part of a bigger, national public health initiative.
Evaluate your Self-Care Week project
Evaluating your Self-Care Week initiative is a useful way to measure its effectiveness and demonstrates whether you reach your objective(s).
You might wish to implement an evaluation plan before you start activities and base it on your objective(s) by focusing on intended outputs, outcomes and long and short-term impact.
It will also help you understand which activities work well and what works less well so you can adapt and shape your local self-care strategies going forward. (It could also help make a case for further funding).
Connecting to National Self-Care Week
As organisers of Self-Care Week, the Self Care Forum will be promoting the Week and all things self-care at the national level, particularly via social media. So do look out for us.
We invite you to use #selfcareweek and #mindandbody when getting involved on social media. For a like and share, include the Self-Care Forum on your posts for LinkedIn, FB, X, Bluesky and instagram.
Please follow us and do get in touch if you have questions about the Self-Care Forum and Self-Care Week. selfcare@selfcareforum.org.