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Skills building seminar: Beyond the jargon: an interactive workshop for effective risk communication

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JA PreventNCD, in collaboration with EUPHAnct and EUPHA-EPI, is co-organizing the workshop “Skills-Building Seminar: Beyond the Jargon – An Interactive Workshop for Effective Risk Communication” at the European Public Health Conference in Lisbon, November 2024. 

WP10 of JA PreventNCD will contribute by presenting an ongoing activity and preliminary findings from Task 10.3, titled “Lessons Learned from COVID: Effective Health Communication in Crises and Beyond.” This task aims to develop a framework for need-based, informed communication strategies, drawing on the health communication lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The session will open with a presentation of the core elements of effective risk communication, as outlined in the WHO Strategic Communications Framework for effective communications. These elements guided the first activity of Task 10.3, which involved a document analysis. This analysis explored the question: What did supranational and governmental health organizations learn about communicating with vulnerable groups? 

In the analysis, 25 texts from both international and national institutions were screened using deductive criteria (such as the WHO’s framework) and inductive criteria (including factors like infodemic management, community engagement, and risk perceptions). The presentation will include examples that illustrate how these criteria were applied. 

Three key findings from the analysis are as follows: 

  • When communicating with the public, the roles of public figures should be clear 

  • The key target groups were not always reached by the messages communicated during the pandemic 

  • More research is needed on public risk perceptions, as these are linked to behavior.