Health care: nursing homes, it’s also a matter of good public relations. Uneba’s point of view

Thanks to Raffaella Ria of Ontex Group – Serenity, we had the opportunity to work for Uneba on several press conferences this year, collaborating with their communications office that was in charge of coordinating this important group of associations deployed in several Italian regions.

Uneba describes itself as a trade organization of the social, health, welfare and educational sector with 1,000 member institutions and has been operating, throughout Italy, since 1950. 

Uneba Veneto and Lombardy have taken the lead in communication, but all other regions are also aligned with the call for more attention to the needs of nursing homes, which must, for example, hire nurses from abroad because there are not enough university courses in Italy to train the required personnel.

The dramatic crisis triggered by the pandemic has revealed how it is necessary to develop policies to support these facilities that are perceived as hospital-like environments but are not equipped as such because they have a different and complementary function. 

The press conferences and related press releases highlighted how important it is to create a permanent channel of communication with the public through the media to update the public and explain how many socially useful and now more than ever necessary services are being delivered by these facilities.  

The communication strategy has always been built up from the news that Uneba wanted to communicate given the urgency of the period, but we are confident that future actions will be devoted to structuring a more permanent mode of reporting with the aim of building greater awareness about these facilities and how their central role is key in a society such as ours that expects the number of elderly people to double in 2050.

It should always be remembered that it is difficult for the press to pick up national news if regional organs are communicating them, also because of the way newsrooms are organized, except for institutions of the highest level, so Milan and Rome should always be considered as the cities from which to start any initiative.

Press release launches, regardless of conferences on nursing homes’ issues, always capture the attention of journalists from agencies to TV stations; this is why overcoming urgency issues and studying a long-term plan by putting Public Relations at the center is going to be a choice that will change the role of Uneba and nursing homes and how they are perceived.