FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 24, 2003
Hopkins Report: Strategic Health Communication Can
Lead to Healthier Behaviors in Developing World
New Publications Document Successes, Lessons Learned, and Overall Strategies
BALTIMORE- Strategic communication programs make a difference in changing health behavior when communication professionals apply key lessons from 20 years of field experience, according to a new publication from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (CCP).
Advancing Health Communication: The PCS Experience in the Field reaches five overarching conclusions and offers 52 specific lessons learned from the experience of CCP's Population Communication Services (PCS) project, which was supported by the U. S. Agency for International Development and concluded March 31, 2003.
"The publication points out that research and meta-analyses show people often change their behavior as a result of strategic health communication programs and campaigns," said Professor Phyllis Tilson Piotrow, PhD, former Principal Investigator of the PCS project, CCP's founding Director, and lead author.
Co-authored by PCS Project Director Jose G. Rimon II and Deputy Project Directors Alice Payne Merritt and Gary Saffitz, Advancing Health Communication identifies the following overarching conclusions:
- Campaigns/programs can achieve improvements in health behavior averaging about 9 percentage points;
- The greater the exposure, the greater the likelihood of impact;
- Entertainment is a powerful tool to reach and teach people;
- The more participatory the program, the greater the probable impact; and
- Participants, partners, and donors all need to work together for the best results.
PCS played a key role in moving from the traditional view of health education as posters, brochures, and flip charts to broad-based strategic health communication programs, combining mass media, community mobilization, and strategic planning. In the last five years, PCS focused on fostering community norms to 1) give women a larger voice in health issues, 2) build communication capacity in local institutions, and 3) stimulate overall social change in support of better health.
In addition to Advancing Health Communication, CCP released two new field guides based on PCS' experience to provide step-by-step instruction when designing an overall health communication strategy or setting up health information and referral telephone hotlines.
A Field Guide to Designing a Health Communication Strategy provides practical guidance for developing a comprehensive, long-term approach to health communication that responds appropriately to audience needs. Lead author Gael O'Sullivan of Prospect Associates/American Institutes of Research guides readers through the steps, tools, and lessons learned by PCS staff in the field when designing a strategic communication program.
Setting up a Hotline, written by CCP's Kate Stratten and Robert Ainslie, offers a step-by-step approach for establishing a health communication telephone hotline. The guide was also based on the experience gained under the PCS project. By sharing PCS' experience and providing examples of hotlines in the Philippines, Nigeria, South Africa, Peru, and elsewhere, the guide helps communication professionals decide what type of hotline will suit their audience and how to operate it.
Both guides contain helpful tips, worksheets, forms, guidelines, checklists, and illustrative examples.
Supported by USAID, the Health Communication Partnership is a global communication initiative designed to promote evidence-based and innovative approaches, build capacity, and bring programs to scale. HCP is led by CCP in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, Save the Children, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and the University of North Carolina's Carolina Population Center at Chapel Hill.
To order copies of these publications, please contact orders@jhuccp.org or order online through the CCP website.
