# Presentation: 185418

## Session ACrisis and Emergency Risk Communication*

**Session A****Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication***

- *Adapted from CDC Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) Training

## Participating Agencies

**Food and Agriculture Organization ****of the United Nations**

**U.S. Department of Health****and Human Services**

**Centers for Disease Control****and Prevention**

**World Health Organization****Thailand Office**

## Session A Objectives

- Describe the foundation and rationale of crisis and emergency risk communication
- Describe the  framework of the workshop and goals to be achieved
- “Buy into” establishing a Health Communications Consortium as an outcome of the workshop

## Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication

- To provide accurate, timely, and coordination information during a crisis or emergency.
- To inform the public of potential risks and steps being taken during a crisis or emergency.
- To aid individuals, stakeholders, or communities  to accept the imperfect nature of choices and to make best possible decisions during a crisis or emergency.

## Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication

**Crisis Communication Lifecycle***
- To facilitate in anticipating the needs of the public, the media, and stakeholders at different stages
- Each stage has unique communications and information requirements

-            **Maintenance**

-            **Resolution**

-            **Evaluation**

-           ** ****Initial**

-           ** ****Pre-crisis**

## Pre-Crisis Communication

- Be prepared
- Foster alliances
- Develop recommendations through consensus
- Test audience messages

**Pre-crisis**

**Notes:**
Anticipate types of disasters and possible questions your country or organization may need to address. Seek preliminary answers and leave blanks to be filled in later. Identify spokespersons, resources, and mechanisms. Identify staff training needs. Foster alliances and partnerships so all organizations relay the same messages and tone.

## Risk Perception

- Voluntary vs. involuntary
- Personally controlled vs. controlled by others
- Familiar vs. exotic

**Notes:**
Your audience will perceive risk differentially, depending on what kind of risk the crisis presents. Some risks are more acceptable than others.
Voluntary vs. involuntary – risks people take on voluntarily are more acceptable than risks that are imposed upon people
Personally controlled vs. controlled by others – like voluntary risks, risks within a person or community’s control are more acceptable than risks outside a person or community’s control
Familiar vs. exotic – again, similar to the above, risks that are familiar are more readily acceptable than unknown risks or risks that are not understood

## Risk Perception

- Nature vs. manmade
- Reversible vs. permanent
- Statistical vs. anecdotal

**Notes:**
Nature vs. manmade – risks generated by nature are better tolerated than those caused by human action (Hurricane Katrina vs. FEMA?)
Reversible vs. permanent – self-explanatory?
Statistical vs. anecdotal – risks presented anecdotally, as in “one in a million” can be more damaging than statistical risks presented as a number, such as “1 in 10,000”

## Risk Perception

- Fairly vs. unfairly distributed
- Adults vs. children
- Understood benefit vs. questionable benefit

**Notes:**
Fairly vs. unfairly distributed – risks that are perceived to target one group or person are less well tolerated than risks that do not
Adults vs. children – self-explanatory
Understood vs. questionable benefit – risks that provide a well-understood potential benefit or reduction of harm are better tolerated than risks with little or no perceived, well-understood potential benefit or reduction of harm

## Emergency Risk Communication Principles 

- Don’t over-reassure
- State continued concern before stating updates
- Acknowledge uncertainty
- Emphasize a process in place
- Give people things to do
- Don’t try to allay panic
- Acknowledge people’s fears

**Notes:**
Initially you want your audience overly vigilant. Reassurance can also backfire. People must be allowed to respond to a crisis emotionally, physically, and mentally. Also, it is better to let your audience know that a situation is less severe than you initially foresaw rather than more severe.
“It’s too soon to say the crisis is waning, but we have seen a decline in the number of cases these past two weeks.”
Public health authorities and spokespeople who share their uncertainty make their audience a collaborator and are most effective when they also acknowledge the audience’s uncertainty and distress.
However, let the audience know that there is a process in place to address concern, find and share information, and respond adequately.
Anxiety can be reduced by action and it (action) often gives people a sense of control.
Panic is less common than you would believe. Most individuals in crisis either follow instructions from public authorities to figure out what to do themselves. Panic in the form of anxiety or fear may present itself after the fact; during a crisis most people panic due to conflicting messages rather than bad news. The pre-crisis phase to anticipate important information and can be tested for cultural and demographic appropriateness.
Respond with information that allows people to put those fears into context.

## Crisis and Emergency Communication

-   +
-        Speed of Release

-      Empathy
- +
-        Openness

**Crisis and Emergency Communication**

- Credibility
- 				Successful
-        +		 =
- 			        Communication
- 	Trust