# Presentation: 729935

## Medical Reserve Corps Conference“Special Needs”April 21, 2006

- “Communication That Builds Community”

## Special Needs

- Vulnerable populations
- Hard-to-Reach populations
- Special needs populations
- At-Risk populations
- Culturally Diverse Groups

## Outside the Mainstream

- Katrina shone a hard light on a national weakness - our capacity to be realistic about how many people living in America are outside the communication “mainstream.”

- How do we communicate with diverse populations about emergency preparedness or response?

## Doing More With Less

- Public serving agencies are expected to do more every year, yet their annual resources reflect fewer dollars and people. Adding outreach to special populations to a communications “to do” list seems impossible.

## Medical Reserve Corps Units

- Improve health literacy by:
- Increasing disease prevention
- Eliminating health disparities
- Improving public health preparedness

## Dr. Richard H. Carmona’s priorities state:

- All Americans - regardless of their race, heritage, or gender - should have access to good health information, insurance, and services. MRC units _may wish to target areas within their jurisdiction that may traditionally be underserved_.

## Targeting Underserved Populations

- Define
- Locate
- Reach
- There are resources in your community that can help you understand and motivate diverse populations. Utilizing them effectively requires collaboration.

## Who are the Underserved?

- Low Income groups
- Medicaid recipients
- Working poor
- Living at or under the poverty line
- Those dependent on public transportation
- Non-English speaking
- African
- Hispanic/Latino
- Asian
- French
- Middle Easterners
- Pacific Islanders/Aleuts/Eskimos

- Illegal/undocumented immigrants
- Refugees
- Blind and visually impaired
- Chronically ill
- Deaf and hard of hearing
- Developmentally disabled
- Drug and/or alcohol dependent
- Mentally ill
- Brain disorders/injuries
- Mobility impaired
- Energy dependent

## Who are the Underserved cont.

- Frail elderly
- Pregnant women
- Mothers with newborns
- School-age, latchkey children
- Juvenile offenders
- Families with children with healthcare needs

- Homeless
- Homebound elderly
- Remote rural
- Dense urban populations
- Seasonal migrant workers
- People displaced by disaster

## Comprehensive Identifiers

- Economically disadvantaged
- Limited language competence (non-English speaking, low literacy, undocumented)
- Disabled (physical, mental, sensory, cognitive)
- Age vulnerable (very old, very young)
- Geographically/culturally isolated (remote rural, deep urban)

## Community Engagement

- Build a network of trusted individuals representing different population groups
- Seek out often “untitled” leaders as well as officials
- “Exercise” the network in non-emergency situations
- Pay close attention to message, messenger, and media

## Ethnic Media

- A most often untapped resource in a community
- They ARE the trusted information sources for many living in the U.S.
- Can be a literal life-saver in reaching special populations

## Ethnic Media cont.

- New America Media - headquartered in California - the country’s first and largest collaboration of ethnic news organizations
- Online Ethnic Media directory available at _[http://news.newamericamedia.org/](http://news.newamericamedia.org/)_
- Ethnic media representatives say they want to learn more about what they need to communicate to their audiences to prepare for and cope with disaster

## CDC’s Special Populations Workbook

- This Workbook provides a structured process, a framework, in which communities can tackle this daunting task and share best practices and lessons learned to build a national infrastructure for communication built on networks of communities and neighborhoods.
- View a DRAFT of the Workbook at (_[www.bt.cdc.gov/workbook](http://www.bt.cdc.gov/workbook)__)_

## Kelly ReinhardtJane Mobley Associates116 W. 3rd Street, Suite 102Kansas City, MO 64105p: (816) 472-1930f: (816) 472-1926e: kreinhardt@janemobley.com

- “Communication That Builds Community”