FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

[sharon sanders]

I am pleased to announce that FluTrackers has been invited to advise on Risk Communications for Public Health Emergencies to the The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and the Research Council of Norway.


"The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), in collaboration with the Research Council of Norway, is pleased to invite you to the workshop Risk Communications for Public Health Emergencies: What to Learn from Real-life Events.

The workshop will take place on on 2?3 October 2014 in Oslo, Norway and will be hosted by the Research Council of Norway. ASEF is an inter-governmental organisation which strengthens relations between Asia and Europe. The ASEF Public Health Network contributes to building Asian and European countries? capacity to prepare for and manage public health emergenices by facilitating co-operation between the health and non-health sectors.

The workshop will bring together professionals in the field of risk communication for public health emergenices. Participants will evaluate the challenges and capacity needs recognised by different stakeholders in communications for such events. In this process of drawing lessons, participants will identify core elements for the lessons to become useful and functional in future public health emergencies. The objectives will be achieved through presentations of case studies, working group discussions as well as a simulation exercise.

The co-organisers would be delighted if you could attend this workshop and share your expertise in epidemiology and managing web-based information sharing on infectious diseases."

Attending for FluTrackers is Gert van der Hoek. Thank you Gert!

We will be stressing our commitment to The International Declaration of Human Rights and the importance of this document in the application of public health practices.

We are always trying to stress to entities that candor and honesty in public health emergencies is essential. The public is the major "stakeholder" in any emergency and should be a partner in the process.

[JJackson]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Excellent, Gert will be valuable addition to this exercise. I look forward to the output from this meeting, and Gert's thoughts.

[Pathfinder]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Great news! Gert!

[Lizw]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Congratulations! Another confirmation of the good work of this group of people.

[Michael Coston]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

That's terrific news, I'm sure Gert will do a wonderful job, and hope she has a great time doing it.


Congrats to everyone.

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Hi folks,

yes this could be fun in Oslo. Guess most participants will be government representatives. I'll try to convince them not to be afraid of people, not to be afraid of democratic principles, or human rights like freedom of speech and freedom of information. In case of a health crisis you need the people, the public to resolve the situation? If you want "the public" to trust the government, you have to trust "the public"?

In case of a health crisis all kinds of "non-health factors" may complicate things, open and honest communication could lower the impact of these "non-health factors".

FT was invited because here we have an "open acces database" running, the ASEF would like to know what is going on here. I'll try to represent FT in the true FT spirit.

I'll let you know how it was, thanks for the support.

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Fantastic! Congratulations Gert & all at FT!

[Thornton]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Congratulations !
Thornton

[Shannon Bennett]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Nice work Gert! You will do a magnificant job.

[Shiloh]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

How timely. Congrats to us all.

We are seeing the failure of meaningful risk communication in West Africa and with the politicization of an outbreak of a disease(s) in Venezuela. Trust is the foundation of everything. In an epidemic, the war on the disease is not going to be won from top down govt. initiatives but from the bottom up...by individuals who know their communities, are trusted and can organize and educate. They are the key to success.
How the Canadians handled the H5N1 case in Alberta is a fine example of how information was delivered to inform the public yet the rights of the patient were respected. Alas, too few examples of such these days given the variation in privacy laws.

[tetano]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

If you want "the public" to trust the government, you have to trust "the public"?

This is a really important point

[cozodapo]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Flutrackers provides a transparent, multidisciplinary, multicultural platform for information sharing and is exemplary.

It is not clear that there was or is a failure in risk communication in the Mano River Union (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia) so much as a different prioritization of the risk within different contexts.

The concept of "meaningful risk communication" is contextual. The bald facts of a risk can be successfully shared and understood but expecting that the all parties should have the same attitude towards those facts is where we go wrong. People who live at daily risk from several endemic fever causing illnesses all of which can kill to one degree or another are going to have different attitude towards "yet another fever causing disease" and will prioritise actions accordingly. (This is not peculiar to Africans -- consider the attitudes of people in temperate regions towards flu/common cold/allergy complex of symptoms.)

Add to this politics, ethnic/linguistic differences, and easy internet access to a smorgasbord of theories, hypotheses and just plain mis-information that can be used to justify any course of action and you can see what are the challenges we face!

How timely. Congrats to us all.

We are seeing the failure of meaningful risk communication in West Africa and with the politicization of an outbreak of a disease(s) in Venezuela. Trust is the foundation of everything. In an epidemic, the war on the disease is not going to be won from top down govt. initiatives but from the bottom up...by individuals who know their communities, are trusted and can organize and educate. They are the key to success.
How the Canadians handled the H5N1 case in Alberta is a fine example of how information was delivered to inform the public yet the rights of the patient were respected. Alas, too few examples of such these days given the variation in privacy laws.

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Thanks for the comments , appreciate it!

@Cozodapo: "contextual", good point, I agree. Wish you all the best in these very difficult times in your country.

[Vibrant62]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Well done and good luck.

I think that they need to grasp that now is a 'teachable moment'. We will get ebola introductions, and these will be managed, but honest dissemination of the facts and education is needed now, not when an introduction arrives. The 'dont worry, be happy' messaging is not going to be helpful at this point unless preceded by education, that properly contextualises the risks. People ARE going to be fearful, but fear can be managed when people have enough appropriate information already to hand - completely agree cozodapo. Doing this only when the problem arrives is insufficient, as fear can cloud reason and judgement.

[Amish Country]

Re: FluTrackers Invited to Advise on Risk Communications in Public Health Emergencies to Asia-Europe Foundation

Wow! Just wow! Congrats Gert. I don't envy you the task ahead of you. It will be a challenge that is for sure. I hope you can get them to see the value of telling the truth and encouraging families, communities, business as well as healthcare institutions to prepare and be as self reliant as possible.

The information on this board is a powerful tool. This invitation is another validation of that fact.