The line of work I’ve chosen is very difficult because it’s so close to my heart. As a person in long-term recovery, I become emotionally invested in my media messaging and business-to-business communications for Infinite Recovery. When I speak about recovery, I have a visible physical reaction. My voice gets louder. I begin speaking with my hands. My leg gets restless, and my feet tap incessantly. My eyes get wider and more alert.
The harsh reality is that the sheer volume of people suffering from substance use disorder, the potency of the substances legally and illegally available, the misconceptions around recovery, the nondisclosure traditions of 12-step anonymous programs and the staggering number of unethical facilities in operation have created a climate for low reporting and subsequently low statistical success of long-term recovery.
Don’t be discouraged: There are a vast number of people recovering from substance use disorder. It’s just more newsworthy to focus on the issues and fatalities. Tragedy equals clicks.
There is mistrust surrounding recovery positioning strategies.
We live in a time where we’ve learned more about mental health than ever before. It’s a truly optimistic era for the industry as we’ve begun to innovate the ways in which people are treated.
There is, however, a certain feeling of mistrust in the industry around positioning strategies. There are responsible ways to market treatment strategies that clearly state the person of concern’s willingness to actively pursue recovery will add to success. Then there are strategies that imply, “This solution is the silver bullet.” Whether it’s a new modality that’s being exploited as a gimmick, an old-school approach or a new scientific innovation, there is a treatment center applying these methods in hundreds of different ways.
How can health care marketers responsibly market and position recovery solutions?
The reality of long-term recovery from substance use disorder and mental illness is that it ebbs and flows. There is no guarantee that any treatment stint or modality will be the one that sticks. In fact, the National Institute of Substance Abuse states that the chronic nature of the disease means that relapsing to drug abuse at some point is not only possible, but likely. The biggest statement from the site that stuck out to me was, “Lapsing back to drug use indicates that treatment needs to be reinstated or adjusted or that another treatment should be tried.”
Treatment providers, private practice clinicians, advocacy groups and mental health professionals have to be transparent about recidivism rates. It’s our ethical responsibility to inform families and loved ones that treatment is as effective as the client’s motivation to change, the support structure that awaits them once leaving a facility and the treatment of co-occurring disorders.
Health care providers are increasingly paying attention to outcomes reporting in their authorization of health care claims, and we as marketing and communications professionals must take note of this. Health care giant Humana has even built its own clinical infrastructure CareHub to turn raw data into actionable health intelligence at the most critical moments for patients and subscribers. What this means for health care providers is what marketing professionals have known all along – client testimonials and raw data can be crafted into beautiful stories of your service’s success and reinforce any communications strategy.
Turning these numbers and statistics into stories takes time and creativity. Simply stating a percentage doesn’t convey the amount of work it takes to get there. What’s been effective for us is compiling data on lengths of sobriety, activities each client participates in, a “cumulative healing” quantitation of family and personal relationships, and assimilation into normal daily life. You can distribute these stories through social media, in video testimonials and blogs to connect with the person and convey their transformation.
Data will drive the future.
Over the past year, the organization I work for has begun diving deep into outcomes, statistics and measurable data points including but not limited to average length of stay, levels of care completed, support system engagement, recidivism rates, etc. We also partner with a third-party organization that supports our outcome-tracking initiatives to support relapse prevention and ensure patients are provided the community and clinical resources necessary to support long-term sobriety.
What we’ve found is when we’re able to compile data and report it in the clearest and most concise manner, we’re not only able to get the families and loved ones to participate; we’re also able to engage the clients in the best circumstances for success. Compiling this data has also helped us identify our key partners for treatment collaboration and form relationships with ethical, high-quality treatment providers.
Best practices that we have identified are:
• Gather as much data as possible. Ask each client as much as they are willing to share to tell a story.
• Make it measurable. So often in behavioral health care, information is subjective. It’s necessary to begin compiling quantitative data so as to make it tangible.
• Consistency is key. Creating a workflow that can be followed and repeated helps remove barriers from the follow-up process and ensure each individual receives attention.
Going forward, our entire attitude will have to shift as an industry to not only reach more people affected with substance use disorder, but to shed stigma and create awareness. There are a large number of ethical and responsible treatment providers with honest communications about their programs, but my hope is that their data will help them leverage even stronger continuing care models and let this speak to the families and health care providers.
Data is the future. We’ve always known this for industries like chemical engineering and technology, but now is the time to apply it to behavioral health care. By simply compiling data and using it to illustrate successful treatment strategies and outcomes, we can more confidently recommend continuums of care to each specific client and create more accurate, measurable depictions of an individual’s trajectory.
