Regional communication strategy for the prevention and control of birth defects
By: WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia
Publisher: World Health Organization, Regional Office for South-East Asia
Published: 2015
Place of publication: New Delhi
Language: eng
Number of pages: 118
ISBN-13: 9789290224730
Copyright date: 2015
Subjects: Human Abnormalities; Prevention; Epidemiology; Communication in medicine; Congenital Abnormalities; Prevention & control; Public Health; Preconception Care; Perinatal Care; Communication
Description: "For the prevention and management of birth defects, an enabling and supportive environment is crucial to encourage individuals, families and communities to adopt and sustain new behaviours. This is achieved through a range of health communication activities including community mobilization and media campaigns. Public campaigns need to focus on alleviating the stigma related to birth defects and sensitively address cultural and religious issues such as consanguinity, myths and misconceptions around birth defects. Strategically planned communication helps influence policy-makers and opinion leaders to bring about changes in policies, as well as encouraging structural changes within the community to support healthy behaviours. Hence, it is equally important to conduct advocacy with policy- and decisionmakers to position birth defects among existing priorities in the national health agenda of countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for South-East Asia developed a regional strategic framework for the prevention and control of birth defects (2013-2017), to guide Member States in developing national plans to address birth defects. The strategic framework recommends that a welldesigned communication strategy is an important element for the prevention and control of birth defects. This regional communication strategy for the prevention and control of birth defects has, therefore, been prepared, in consultation with Member States, to guide the development of strategic communication plans to facilitate implementation of national plans for the prevention and control of birth defects. Considering that health communication is an important component of ongoing reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and related programmes in Member States, the regional communication strategy recommends the integration of communication activities for birth defects into existing public health programmes, as far as possible, for synergistic effect. A set of communication tools is also provided in the form of ready-to-use templates that could be used for advocacy, awareness generation etc. in different media channels for prevention of birth defects within the country."--Page 4 of cover
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 44-45).
Table of contents: title: Acknowledgement --; title: Acronyms -- -- 1.; title: Birth defects: an urgent public health priority -- -- 2.; title: WHO's response -- -- 3.; title: Setting the agenda for prevention and care --; title: Interventions that can be integrated into existing and emerging programmes -- -- 4.; title: The power of communication in prevention of birth defects -- -- 5.; title: Goal and objectives -- -- 6.; title: Strategic actions -- -- 1.; title: Communication needs analysis -- -- 2.; title: Audience analysis and engagement -- -- 3.; title: Developing messages for communication -- -- 4.; title: Selecting channels of communication -- -- 5.; title: Communication campaigns -- -- 6.; title: Communication for advocacy -- -- 7.; title: Behaviour change communication -- -- 8.; title: Community mobilization -- -- 9.; title: Monitoring and evaluation of communication activities -- -- 7.; title: The way forward -- -- 8.; title: Conclusion -- -- 9. Resources -- Annexes -- 1.; title: Findings of the communication needs analysis (CNA) in the South-East Asia Region -- -- 2.; title: Communication channels -- -- 3.; title: Examples of good practice in the South-East Asia Region -- -- 4.; title: Tips on media advocacy -- -- 5.; title: Environmental factors that influence provider behaviour -- -- 6.; title: Stakeholder identification matrix -- -- 7.; title: Community mobilization examples from the South-East Asia Region -- -- 8.; title: Tips on community mobilization -- -- 9.; title: An example of communication campaign monitoring and evaluation -- -- 10.; title: Checklist for strategic communication plans -- -- 11.; title: Communication tools: Generic templates for the purpose of advocacy and awareness generation.