Hosted at the Keele University, the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) required a communications strategy for their recently launched £7m mental health research programme. The programme funds research into new and improved mental health services for typically underserved communities in England, with a focus on bringing together multi-disciplinary teams of researchers and community partners across primary care, social care and public health.
The challenge
Without dedicated resource for communications delivery, the SPCR Directorate team needed a “way forward and road map” for communications to complement their three-year operational strategy for the programme, along with messaging that would speak to all partners.
Approach
- Discovery workshop with the team to brainstorm objectives and programme stakeholders.
- Series of semi-structured interviews with community and programme partners to gather insights and develop ideas.
- Review of existing communications activities on the theme of mental health.
- Desk research.
Deliverables
- Comprehensive stakeholder analysis, outlining priority stakeholders and their needs
- Objective-driven communications strategy with dissemination and engagement activities to support researcher and partner outreach, internal communications, and knowledge exchange.
- Audience-focused key message framework.
- Implementation plan for the operational team to follow.