Central Bedfordshire Youth Parliament hoping to go viral in health campaign video
Members of the Central Bedfordshire Youth Parliament have featured in videos as part of a campaign to encourage residents to choose the right health services this winter.
The videos, which are being shared on the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board’s social media channels throughout December, are designed to raise awareness of the challenges facing health services over the winter months.
The main message through the videos, aimed at engaging young people while being informative for all ages, is about choosing the right National Health Service (NHS) for your need.
One video shows a young person revealing advice printed on a board about how you can protect yourself and others over the winter, which includes getting winter vaccinations, checking on friends and neighbours and calling NHS 111 to get free advice.
Director of neighbourhood health and partnerships at the care board Maria Wogan said: “Every winter we face the challenge of finding new and eye-catching ways of reminding eligible local residents about the importance of getting vaccinated against flu and other infections, as well as more generic messages about how they can help the NHS to carry on providing care throughout the winter.
“This year we’ve chosen to include some new and innovative content from the Central Bedfordshire Youth Parliament, which are a fun way for us all to get the message about using NHS services effectively.
“Although the content is aimed at engaging younger residents, I’m sure people of all ages will appreciate and share them on their own social media accounts, so that everyone knows how to get the right treatment from the NHS this winter.”
Tommy Axe from the Central Bedfordshire Youth Parliament added: “We were delighted to get involved in this project because young people often aren’t as engaged in NHS messages as other age groups.
“We hope to help people of our own age to become more aware of how to use NHS services, especially in the winter months, and to enable them to inform other members of their families about what’s available.
“Hopefully people will like the content we’ve created as much as we enjoyed making it. It’s been a terrific experience to create messages with a client in mind, rather than just consuming them as most young people do.”