The Perception towards HIV Infection - Essay Example

The perception towards HIV infection and the infected patients have had ample improvisation since the last decade of the twentieth century. Till the early nineties an infection with Human Immuno Virus used to result in progressive immunosupression, increasing ill health and the advent of pre-terminal AIDS-defining infections and cancers. Since then there had been intensive developments in antiretroviral therapy and the scenario has turned much into a manageable chronic condition. However the challenges for the HIV infected ones to strive across serious illness, managing chronic medical condition and early death are immense. ‘Living Well’ comes to their aid helping them to be independent, have a better control on the situation and in totality extend them a better life ahead. Living Well offers a wide range of self management programmes exclusively designed for people living with HIV/AIDS. Positive Self Management Programmes- (PSMP) is one of the core programmes offered by Living Well is a licensed programme scientifically designed by the support of Stanford University. It is a holistic programme with seven weekly 2.5 hour sessions dealing with an integrated approach enabling the participants in dealing with different realms of life ahead. It helps the patients to be informed and take decisive steps appertaining to their health care and quality of life. This strategy of the programme well goes with the governmental policy which states “People want information about what they can do that will make a difference to their health as well as access to the options that can help them in adopting a healthy lifestyle – choice in what they eat, how and where they take exercise and in how they access support services. Government has a role in fostering demand for health, working with public services, the voluntary sector and industry to get accurate information and choices to people in ways that are relevant to their lives and meet their needs as individual” (Choosing Health Chap 2, p19 – 20). The prime principle of the programme adheres with the philosophy that the health maintenance strategy if based on emotionally maintained tools, those would by itself serve more towards the complete health maintenance of the patients. The programme intends to bring in case specific outcomes on the participants. The outcomes Enhanced understanding and increased ability to effectively self-manage their condition: Increased ability to make informed decisions regarding health, HIV treatment, diet and nutrition, exercise, stress management, sexual health issues, support services, supporting others, adherence to prescribed therapy and action planning; Increased ability to build personal strategies to support their and wellbeing; Increased understanding of the services that are available to support them; Increased ability to form social networks and provide support to others; Increased ability to set realistic goals, explore personal options and make future plans; Increased ability to move beyond their HIV status to focus on the improvement of their quality for life; and Active involvement in the maintenance and development of the programme. (Living Well Annual Report 2008, Appendix) PSMP Marketing: A participatory approach The integral factor which differentiates Positive Self Management Programmes- (PSMP) from its counterparts is its participatory approach. The process of development and review of the programme involves the direct feedback from the participants. This helps towards the de-stigmatisation of HIV and accelerates the engagement and empowerment of participants at a very early stage. More importantly the programme sets an exemplary model to the whole world as the trained programme facilitators live with the HIV affected inmates. The marketing strategy much depends on the process of customer identification. Bruce’s (Bruce, 2004, p38) table of customer gives an overview on the wide range of target customers and clearly indicates the need of a multiple level marketing strategy. This reference is quite relevant with the case of Living Well as the table is applicable for all the products and services whose end users are not paying/funding customers. Beneficiaries Supporters Stakeholders Regulators Participants (people living with HIV) Specific target groups Black African Gay Men Facilitators (people living with HIV) Commissioners Private sector Companies e.g. Pharmaceuticals Condom Manufacturers Sexual Health Agency Living Well Team Facilitators NHS Hammersmith & Fulham Primary Care Trust Beneficiary Intermediaries Supporter Intermediaries Stakeholder Intermediaries Regulator Intermediaries Commissioners HIV Clinics HIV Consultants and Nursing Staff HIV Counselors/Therapists Faith Leaders GP’s PCT Management Union Representatives Department of Health MPs The 8 ‘P’s in Marketing strategy The formulation of the marketing strategy involves an eight P marketing mix. It includes McCarthy’s 4 P’s approach (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) blended with Booms and Bitner’s additional three P’s to the mix (People, Physical evidence, and Process) as suggested by Bruce added with his own suggestion ‘Philosophy’. Product The product involved in this marketing strategy is Positive Self Management Programme (PSMP). The description of the programme includes a seven week package of 2.5 hour sessions targeting a group of 10-15 participants. Price The price has to be calculated in an integrative manner. Though the cost of the product (Positive Self Management Program) alone an average would be £3900, the cost of other additional services included also has to be considered. An effective pricing policy would involve the fixation of costing for the whole package. (see appendix of cost breakdown). The costing should also take into consideration the costs that may be occurring in future including programme promotion and capacity building. Additional tangible and intangible benefits should be highlighted along the price package. Place The location of the programme would be ideally a neighbourhood venue which is commodious in terms of accessibility, convenience, safety and other logistic requirements. Promotion The promotion and the extension of the programme are quite important in the success of the programme. A range of promotional materials must be used in the promotion process. Leaflet (see appendix) explaining the services of Living Well services including the PSMP must be distributed in London clinics and other venues such as gay men’s venues and HIV health forums as per relevance. Advertisements should be regularly circulated through crucial magazines and other periodicals. The interviews of the benefited participants can be an ideal advertisement material. The internet resources must be ideally utilised for the promotion of the programme. The number of visitors in the website of Living Well (www.livingwelluk.com) has to be enhanced through regular updating and website campaigns through major search engines. The integration of the expertise of the Living Well team with IT specialists helped the formulation of ‘landing page’ which encouraged more active information dissemination. Proper promotion of the benefits of the programme is also crucial in the development of the programme. Evidence based commissioning developed with the support of Thames Valley University aiding a strong monitoring and documentation of the benefits of the programme comes handy in this deal. This within itself explains to the current and potential promoters the value of the work and the benefits of continuing the service. It also helps to encourage the intermediary promoters such as clinical staff to refer the programme to the patients. Scientific meetings are another ideal stage for the promotion of the programme. The Living Well team in the clinical team meetings, HIV forums and national meetings ensure to present some of the beneficiaries of the programme to present his/her experience of the programme. This first hand extension process of the benefits ideally serves as an advertisement to the potential promoters. Process Living Well emphasises on the developmental process and the deliverance process of the programme. The team ensures that the beneficiaries and supporters have a positive experience throughout the programme. Feedbacks are encouraged to formulate developmental strategy. The development process involves the expertise of the facilitators and the critiques from the past participants. Administratively Living Well provides support in invoice templates for new facilitators. Philosophy Bruce suggested that the additional ‘P’ (Philosophy) refers to the organisations ideology (Bruce p 65). Gray similarly refers to the ‘Principles’ of organisation in terms of health services and sees this as implicit in defining a brand reputation(Gray p 309). Living Well is not only an identifiable service but is also linked as part of the NHS and therefore creates a duality in Brand recognition. Living Well has successfully developed recognition with both participants and commissioners as both credible and responsible service that happens to be part of the NHS. The philosophy of the programme is well understood by the commissioner helping the tendering process. The point of importance is that the philosophy has to be adhered while taking into account the fundraising process. People The capacity building of the people involved in the programme has to be ensured. As Living Well’s is a people focused service, it is important that both the core team and facilitators trained and engaged to deliver are provided with relevant support, training and supervision. This must include conflict management training development and presentation skills According to Bruce the private sector ethos ‘of the customer is always right’ is not generally adopted by the voluntary sector ( Bruce p 95). The recruitment process also has to have immense care. As the beneficiaries of the programme include people from varied cultures and nationalities, the organisation needs to be mindful of the difference in cultures and behaviour. The processes including the promotional material will have to take into consideration this variability in behavioural characters. Physical Evidence The experience of the participants on both the deliver of the programmes and facilitator training is very much key to the success of the programmes. Consideration to the venues as mentioned above (see place) and the quality of the catering and accommodation have led to Living Well have reputation for both consideration and comfort. Read More