Findings: Local PIOs need skills for communicating with immigrant populations

1
A public health workforce development needs
assessment for communication to reduce health
disparities
Donald L. Rubin, PhD Lenette C. Golding, MPH,
The Southern Center for Communication, Health and
Poverty

• Findings Local PIOs need skills for
  communicating with immigrant populations
• Local risk communicators perceive need for skills
  in communicating with linguistically diverse
  populations
• Create stronger liaison especially with Latino
  communities
• Extrapolate from emergency preparedness messages
  to health protection
• messages
• This group does not believe that individual job
  coaching would be an effective training strategy.
  As for MPH students, some are naïve about
• the communication demands in their prospective
  jobs, however most do
• sense a need for tools to facilitate
  community-based collaboration

• SCCHP responds to a convergence of new needs in
  workforce development
• The Southern Center for Communication, Health,
  and Poverty (SCCHP)a CDC-funded center of
  excellence in health communicationis committed
  to public health workforce development in
  communication to reduce health disparities. A
  number of factors converge to create particular
  needs in that domain. E.g.,
• communicating about genetics-related risks
• digital divide may limit access to information
  for many poor and near poor, and especially for
  the elderly
• many health and risk communicators possess
  credentials mainly in emergency response and
  preparedness and not in communication.
• Focus on 3 constituencies
• State Public Health Information Officers
• Local Emergency/Risk Communicators
• Public Health Students

• The Southern Center for Communication, Health,
  and Poverty --a CDC-funded center of excellence
  in health communication
• Mission and Values
• SCCHP develops, fosters, and translates health
  communication and social marketing research into
  strategies that enhance health and well-being of
  the economically disadvantaged people of the
  South.
• We affirm the centrality of communication to
  health protection and health care. We avow that
  eliminating health disparities is a fundamental
  goal of health communication. 
• We will pursue the highest quality
  community-focused prevention and communication
  research. We will translate research findings
  into practical interventions to improve the
  health of economically disadvantaged people of
  the South.
• We will collaborate with community partners to
  assure research practices that reflect their
  health concerns.
• Center Studies

• Findings State-Level PIOs need skills for
  getting out credible messages to minority
  communities
• Building relationships with minority media
  outlets
• Documenting impact of minority media purchases
• Building trust with media users to draw upon in
  emergency response
• situations

Study 1 Understanding the genetic bases for
disease and message development
Study 2 Multiple risk actors and
information seeking
Study 3 Teen Smoking and decision making
Year 1 Conducting Needs Assessments What
factors contribute to the current need for
workforce development in communication to reduce
health disparities? What role can SCCHP play in
monitoring and addressing workforce development
needs in communication to reduce health
disparities?
Information dissemination

• Findings MPH students need nuts-and-bolts public
  relations techniques
• Course work provided on causes and implications
  of health disparities tends to be abstract and
  policy-oriented
• Need dedicated course on cultural differences in
  health beliefs and
• communication patterns in specific communities
• Need dedicated course for direct instruction in
  running community
• meetings, writing PSAs, securing media presence,
  etc.
• ASPH standards for communication only partially
  met

State Public Health Information Officers
Local Emergency/ Risk Communicators
Public Health Students

• Methods utilize focus groups and online surveys
• 4 groups of exiting and mid-program MPH students
• 2 groups of health district emergency
  preparedness PIOs
• Online survey of state-level PIOs (National
  Public Health Information Consortium)

This poster publication was supported wholly by a
Grant from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) (GRANT SP01CD000242).  Its
contents are solely the responsibility of the
authors and do not necessarily represent the
official views of the CDC.