Community & disease outbreak

Ensuring effective community engagement :Following three elements are needed for communities and for field responders.

For communities:

1. Knowledge: communities must know what the disease is, how it is transmitted, and how to protect against it (social mobilization messages);
2. Trust: it is the most important determinant to ensuring communities heed public health advice. Communities must be consulted, engaged, and whenever possible participate in identifying and implementing response measures that communities and responders want above all to treat patients and stop the epidemic;
3. Self-efficacy: communities must be able to implement control measures (e.g. access to soap and water, to gloves, to waste management services, to transportation, to safe burial teams, etc.)

For field responders:

1. Understand: Field responders need to understand the local perceptions of the disease and of the response measures;
2. Listen: Field responders need to listen to communities’ fears and beliefs and adapt their own behaviors accordingly;
3. Support: Field responders need to support communities’ participation, ownership and resilience.

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

Reference:

• Managing Epidemics – Key Factors about deadly major diseases: World Health Organization Version 1 (2018)
• www.werindia.com
• Image credit: Photo by CDC from Pexels
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