N.Y. ad shop creates campaign to destigmatize mental illness

Seventy-year-old Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, N.Y., decided the time had come to build awareness of mental illness over time, both to destigmatize the disease and to encourage those suffering from it to seek help, as well as reinforcing the capabilities and importance of the facility to encourage people to choose Hillside, a 223-bed psychiatric hospital, as their treatment center. Hillside tapped The Benjamin Group, a fast-growing, full-service New York advertising agency that specializes in creative new approaches for the health care industry, to develop a long-term campaign for the psychiatric hospital. The primary objective is to build awareness of mental illness, Hillside Hospital and the treatments available, and to encourage those suffering from mental illness to seek help. Secondarily, since Hillside Hospital has been involved in a capital expansion project, the agency sought to increase awareness among the community in general, trustees and other influential people in order to prompt donations to Hillside's foundation. Since the break of the original ad and the subsequent campaign that launched in January, the number of psychological referrals has remained in the top five of total referrals. The campaign seeks to educate and promote the available mental health services in a positive light.