Risk Communication Strategies for Public Health Preparedness

Description

Risk communication is an exchange of information about the likelihood and consequences of adverse events. In an emergency, effective risk communication is vital because it helps the public respond to the crisis, reduces the likelihood of rumors and misinformation and demonstrates good leadership. This training product will help you be more effective as a communicator and member of a crisis response team. After reviewing basic ideas about risk communication, you will learn to develop crisis communication plans and deliver public health messages by working with the media.

Content

Please click the "Launch This Training" button to access the content listed below. These training materials are available to you free of charge; no payment is necessary.

Topic 1: Risk Communication Strategies for Public Health Preparedness

• Part 1: Background on Risk Communication
• Part 2: What is Risk Communications?
• Part 3: Working with the Media
• Part 4: Communications Plans and Strategies
• Part 5: Crisis Communications
• Part 6: Implications and Action Steps

Useful Risk Communication-related Web sites:

Review CDC-Funded Cooperative Agreements on Public Health Preparedness and Response for Bioterrorism—Budget Year Four

CDC Guidance for Risk Communication and Health Information Dissemination (“Public Information and Communication, Focus Area F”)
 
Cross-Cutting Areas (co-funded with Health Resources and Services Administration)
 
Metropolitan Medical Response Systems (now part of the Department of Homeland Security)

Trainer

Margo Edmunds, PhD, is an adjunct associate professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she has taught policy analysis and health communications since 1999. A faculty member with the Center for Public Health Preparedness, she trains public health professionals in all-hazards crisis response and evaluated communications during Harbor B.A.S.E., a regional bioterrorism field exercise conducted in July 2003.

Currently, Dr. Edmunds is principal strategist in the Health Program at the American Institutes for Research, where she oversees projects in health communications and biodefense. Previously, she held senior positions at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California-San Francisco and the Children’s Defense Fund. Dr. Edmunds holds an interdisciplinary doctoral degree in human development from the Pennsylvania State University and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Public Health and Medicine.

Training Consultant

Charles Fulwood served as a consultant in developing this course. Mr. Fulwood is a partner at MediaVision, a strategic communications firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously, he was communications director for the Natural Resources Defense Council and Amnesty International. Mr. Fulwood has more than 20 years of experience in strategic communications, crisis management and media campaigns.