Community dynamics

Fourth, fifth and sixth key points that community should be aware of disease outbreak are:

4. Community understanding of diseases and their spread is complex, context-dependent and culturally mediated. Thus, a one-size fits-all approach is neither desirable nor effective.

 5. Communities are multi-layered, and power dynamics exist between individuals, groups and networks. Social scientists can help analyze these dynamics and work with specialists in health education, health promotion and local communities. There are simple tools that can assess relevant perceptions and beliefs for any outbreak’s response. Together they can design the messages and interventions necessary to raise awareness and adapt or change behaviors to meet the demands of a new infection.  Embedding social scientists in response teams will also help to monitor how people adapt public health measures to different social contexts, and whether these are implemented in a way that respects social and cultural systems.

6. Community engagement helps to strengthen and ensure resilience to future outbreaks: when people have already learned how to implement their own solutions, they will be better able to deal with the next outbreak.

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Main article: https://healthylife.werindia.com/your-road-to-healthy-life/community-communication-and-covid-19-outbreak