June is Men’s Health Month: Marketing Tips to Help Your Practice Promote Men’s Health
June is the perfect time to promote men’s health in your community. Father’s Day is celebrated this month and it’s no coincidence that June is also Men’s Health Month. Men participate in half as many preventative physician visits as women and also live approximately 5 years less than women. A great way for us to address this issue is to encourage men to take better care of their health, which could result in additional revenue for your clinics through health promotion.
Physical Therapists are positioned perfectly to assist their current male patients and the men in their community to improve their health and well being. As musculoskeletal experts, PTs can promote active lifestyles, which can lead to longer lives filled with less pain and dysfunction. They can also assist in recovery when active lifestyles get a little too extreme (e.g., weekend warriors). Maintaining and improving flexibility, cardiovascular conditioning and strength is an important way for men, both young and old, to live their best lives.
Celebrate with Us!
You can celebrate Men’s Health Month and/or Men’s Health Week, from June 15th to June 21st, by marketing services that help drive revenue in your practice. Here are a few ideas on how to promote the event, which can be tailored to best suit your practice:
- Advertise and conduct free physical fitness screenings for men. These can be general assessments or based on specific activities or sports, depending on the individual. You could assess flexibility and balance for grandfathers who want to be able to play with their grandkids with fewer limitations, for example. Physical therapy can also evaluate and improve a golfer’s strength, flexibility, neuromuscular control, joint mobility, balance and power with the goal of lowering a golfer’s score and reducing the risks of injury. A running screen and analysis can also prevent injuries, improve performance and running mechanics and include footwear evaluations. These services are great for avid athletes as well as individuals just starting out in a new sport or activity.
- Build your community network by conducting screenings alongside trainers and local professionals. For example, a running screen can be done in conjunction with a running coach or sneaker fitting with a local running store. Building these relationships are great ways to drive referrals to your practice.
- Present a free seminar on a men’s health topic related to physical therapy. This could focus on the importance of staying active while aging, ways to prevent injury, or ways to improve posture to prevent headaches and neck pain. The seminar could be conducted at your clinic, at a local community center, school, retirement community or at a health and wellness center.
- Promote any specialty services that correlate with your clinical staff. If your practice is fortunate enough to have a therapist who is a Urogenital Specialist and is able to treat male pelvic floor conditions, Men’s Health Month is a great time to promote these types of services. Generate brochures and reach out to your local urologists. They will most likely be excited with the opportunity to offer treatment alternatives to their patients.
- Include men in your community who may be suffering from neurological incidents. This could include strokes, traumatic brain injuries or concussions. As data suggests, men are less likely than women to seek medical intervention. For these individuals you could have an open house to allow them to see your facilities and hopefully feel comfortable seeking treatment or participating in a wellness program. Marketing to neurologists in your area can be a great way to promote an open house.
Advertise in Your Clinics
In addition to the ideas described above, for the month of June, you could hang posters and display brochures throughout your clinic with information relevant to the importance of men’s health. Pick a day and have all staff wear blue in support of men’s health awareness. Talk to your current patients, especially women, regarding the services you offer to help keep men healthy. Your female patients will likely have a husband, father, brother, son or other important man in their life for whom they might recommend your services.
As health care providers, physical therapists, can have a significant impact on improving the health and function of men in their community. You can help men get active and stay active, whether in relation to a specific sport or recreational activity or to simply allow them to be more active participants in their family. Men’s Health Month provides a great opportunity to increase awareness of the services you provide that can help not only improve the health of the men in your community, but also improve the health of your bottom line.
