Service Marketing Initiative

• Rationale
• Goal and Objectives
• Strategy
• Methodolgy
• Activities

Rationale

In the highly centralized Soviet health system, community involvement and ownership was rare. The health care system, the services the system provided, and even the health of individuals, was seen as the responsibility of the Ministry of Health and its facilities. A lack of community ownership made the facilities seem bureaucratic and uninviting, and the services they provided impersonal and uncaring. In addition, a top-down approach to health care encouraged individuals to cede responsibility for their own health to facilities and providers, rather than empowering individuals to make healthy choices to benefit their well being.

In the current decentralizing of health care, community ownership and participation in health and health care is becoming possible. By encouraging the community to participate in the care that is provided in their region, communities as a whole can become involved in the provision of quality services, individuals can become empowered to make healthy choices, and providers can help bring clients into their facilities for care.

Goal and Objectives

Goal: To improve the reproductive health of women and men by increasing demand for quality family planning services.

Objectives:

• Increase attendance at target health clinics
• Increase use of modern contraceptives
• Enhance community participation in health care provision and services as measured by attendance at service marketing activities

Strategy

Decentralized service marketing is a strategy to help local health providers promote available services in cooperation with their communities, both producing an increased demand for these services within the immediate access area and creating a new sense of community ownership of and participation in the process of producing health. Public health programs are increasingly recognizing that the household and the community are the primary producers of positive health behavior. Health communication plays a pivotal role in this new public health paradigm. Health communication, especially in the area of FP/RH and HIV/AIDS, is a key tool in affecting normative behavior and in introducing new ideas for positive health practice and prevention. The proposed decentralized service marketing strategy is founded on this idea, enlisting the community and the local service delivery experts toward the improvement of public health.

Methodology

The methodology of the service marketing initiative is based on a successful model implemented by JHU/CCP in Romania that aims to increase RH/FP service utilization through community education, partnership, and ownership. This model gives a role to different levels of community members and leaders, allowing them to advocate for positive health behaviors and establish community ownership of good health. This community responsibility for health is developed through a series of activities and events designed and carried out by health care providers and their local partners to help bridge the gap between clinic and community.

Activities

The service marketing strategy will be implemented in the following stages:

1. Training of Trainers: 2-day training of trainers workshop to introduce approximately [SHOULD THERE BE A NUMBER HERE?] lead trainers to the principles and skills of the service marketing methodology.
   
   
2. Training of Providers: Lead trainers conduct step-down training of clinic teams. The clinic teams will include an average of three practitioners per clinic: the Ob/Gyn physician and two other principal staff members.
   
   The objectives of the training will be to help participants:
   • Understand the marketing process and appreciate how marketing can contribute to their success.
   • Identify the various elements of a marketing plan.
   • Complete a marketing plan outline for their individual center or site.
   • Prepare a proposal of specific activities to implement their marketing plan.
     
     
3. Implementation: Service marketing plans developed by the trained providers will be reviewed and approved by JHU/PCS staff. JHU/PCS will collaborate with and assist the clinic teams in developing promotional materials and conducting promotional activities, such as the following:
   • Community entry and integration (trained participants will contact and work with people and organizations previously trained by cooperating agencies in community mobilization)
   • Community mobilization (community-based and faith-based organizations, workplaces)
   • Media (posters, newspapers, local radio, local television, contests)
   • Dissemination of information (lectures, group meetings, individual counseling, promotional items)
   • Advocacy (with local community stakeholders such as priests, mayors, teachers, civic leaders)
   • Cost leveraging (partnerships with private sector sponsors, free media coverage, recruitment of volunteers)