Social determinants of health campaign

Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP)

An infographic campaign drawing attention to the social factors that contribute to wellbeing.

RACP came to us because physicians reported they were spending a great deal of their time treating patients whose chronic illnesses were preventable.

Many of their illnesses were caused by unhealthy housing that was damp, and lacked insulation and adequate heating. Apart from taking up valuable physician time, there was a significant cost to the public health sector in hospital care.

RACP produced an election statement highlighting several social factors that have an impact on a person’s health – good work, healthy housing, and whānau wellbeing. The statement urged the incoming New Zealand government to address these issues to improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders and reduce the knock-on effect on the health system.

To support this statement, Gusto created an infographic campaign centred around six members of an extended family representing various stages of life. Each family member was illustrated, bringing a human face to the stories being told. Infographics were used to show the health implications of each social factor. A dial was produced as a physical interactive piece that supports the campaign’s stories and recommendations.

The strength of the campaign was in its storytelling focus, using personal stories and case studies as a vehicle to highlight the evidence, health implications, and recommendations for better health outcomes. The campaign was enthusiastically received and the RACP was often quoted in the media on these issues leading up to the election.

During the month of the campaign RACP had the largest share of the media audience among its main competitors (other medical colleges, societies and associations) – the first time the RACP has achieved this result.

440,000 people have seen the campaign’s messages and 34,794 people have seen the #MakeItTheNorm hashtag – resulting in 648 likes, retweets and link clicks.

Infographic campaign interactive dial
After the success of this campaign, RACP are continuing its development so they can be instrumental in creating positive social change. We created a series of “report cards” to show, after two years of work, how well is the coalition government progressing making healthy housing, good work and whānau wellbeing the norm for people in Aotearoa NZ?

The report cards follow the same six family members, all two years older, what difference new policies have made on their lives, and what further they need to thrive.

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