Free Custom «Current Marketing Strategies for Mental Health Services» Essay Paper

Hayes’s article is essentially a marketing plan meant for ‘The Greater Lawrence Mental Health Centre which is located in Lawrence (GLMHC), Massachusetts (Hayes, 1984). This a non profit making medical health facility with its activities focused at providing community services to the local population. The main aim for marketing GLMHC is to enhance the centre’s image, increase volume from third party payments, develop new growth areas, educational and training programs (Hayes, 1984). The first element is to change image that the facility is a place meant for persons who have lost their minds. Advertisements and public relations will therefore be used to emphasize unique traits for GLHMC through identification and recognition of GHLMC among other key facilities in the area, informing community regarding benefits of consulting services, offering emergency care and screening, quality enhancement, and humanizing the institution (Hayes, 1984). These will be achieved through utilisation of media services, for instance, newspaper, brochures, billboards, electronic media, audio-visual presentation, and scheduled appearances.

 

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Ambrose and Lennox’s article gives a critical emphasis of the importance of positioning of mental health services in order to ensure quality, timely, and adequate service provision to the community. Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and consolidations are merely management practices targeted at enhancing survival in the market place (Ambrose and Lennox, 1988). The authors’ of the article sees these strategies as inapplicable in the field of mental health services. The view that mental health programs benefit from a consistently growing population is a misplaced one. Positioning of a mental health care facility takes into consideration the relevant market mix elements in terms of location, cadre of clientele, and appropriate branding mechanisms (Ambrose and Lennox, 1988). This pursues the adoption of service driven slogans, development of a patient centred theme, and optimum service delivery.

Comparison and Relevance

Hayes’s article gives a more comprehensive marketing strategy going by the nature of health care services. It pursues a multi-driven approach, which not only includes contemporary service elements, but also human aspects. Ambrose and Lennox’s article is more centred on position strategy, which focuses more on competition aspects. The strategy therefore fails to incorporate diversification and alienates a certain cadre of clients hence discriminative (Lambert, 2007). I therefore recommend Hayes’s article as it provides the required marketing fundamentals necessary in the field of mental health services.