The Drum Beat 249 - Health e Communication: A new on-line resource

This Drum Beat provides an overview of a new on-line resource for those of you working in health communication and those who feel that the field of health communication has lessons and experiences applicable to development work in other areas. Called Health e Communication (HealtheComm), it is an open process designed to inform and improve your work by providing easy access to a growing collection of case studies, planning models, research and evaluation documents, and lectures and speeches submitted and peer reviewed by yourselves or your colleagues. It is based on the premise that peer review of experiences and ideas is crucial for supporting improved communication action. We are asking each of you to join us in building a practitioner and policy maker perspective on the most valuable ideas and information that support the health and development communication work you undertake by reviewing some or all of the items listed below. We hope that in doing so you will also come across new ideas and perspectives which help your work today.

In order to review the resources follow the URLs provided and click on the 'Click Here' link at the bottom of the resource summary. This will take you to the full text. Once you've reviewed this go back to the summary page - it will remain open in a separate browser. Fill out the simple review questions, adding any comments you wish, and submit.

[[PLEASE NOTE: This website has since been taken offline, due to lack of funding. We have removed the links, since they were no longer active.]]

We have chosen these resources as starting points only. Please feel free to review and rate other resources you find on the site as well.

Please help us build HealtheComm by submitting additional resources that you find particularly helpful to your work.

If you have any general comments, please contact us at hec@comminit.com

Health e Communication has been developed by the Health Communication Partnership (HCP) and The Communication Initiative. It is based on the advice and comments of a world wide group of health communication practitioners who provided essential input during its pilot phase. HCP is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development, and includes Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs, the Academy for Educational Development, Save the Children, The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Case Studies

Resources in this section include studies or programme experiences that focus on specific health communication initiatives and provide insight into the following questions: what did the initiative do, how did it do it, what were the lessons learned? Please note: we include evaluations in this section when they focus on single programmes or initiatives.

1. Balbir Pasha: HIV/AIDS Campaign is the Talk of Mumbai

The Balbir Pasha campaign sought to dispel HIV/AIDS myths, increase risk perception, generate discussion, and motivate people to access HIV/AIDS hotlines and voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) services. In an article entitled "Hats off to the Balbir Pasha Campaign," the national newspaper Indian Express quoted theatre and advertising personality Rahul Da Cuhna as saying, "I think this is one of the few AIDS campaigns that has really been successful since it has talked to a whole strata of people, without sounding alien."

2. Guy to Guy Project: Engaging young men in violence prevention and in sexual and reproductive health

In the last 10 years, there has been a growing international consensus of the need to more adequately include boys and young men in reproductive and sexual health initiatives and gender violence prevention. This case study presents Instituto PROMUNDO's experience in engaging young men as change agents in gender-based violence prevention and the promotion of sexual and reproductive health.

3. Let's Work Together to Beat Measles: A Report on Australia's Measles Control Campaign

The Measles Control Campaign was conducted by the Commonwealth of Australia between August and November 1998. Its components included mass media advertising; direct marketing to parents and school principals; and public relations activities. According to organisers, the communication strategy was a highly successful component of the campaign. Awareness of the campaign and of the need to sign a consent form both peaked at 97%. The information pack and television advertisements had the highest reach of the campaign's elements, with up to 88% and 86% of the group being addressed reporting awareness of these elements, respectively, during the campaign.

Planning & Thinking

Resources in this section focus on ideas to incorporate into health communication initiatives, models for programme planning, and strategic thinking on health issues with reference to communication.

4. State of the Art in Development of Sexual and Reproductive Health Programs

In October 2003, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)'s Child and Adolescent Health Unit organised a 2-day workshop in Panama City. This document provides summary details about country-specific, on-the-ground reproductive health interventions and strategies created and implemented in the LAC. In addition, this workshop incorporated a "meta" perspective, in the sense that academic and other experts in the field of adolescent sexual and reproductive health provided context for these specific efforts - in the form of conceptual, theoretical, and historical perspectives on the issue at hand. They also addressed barriers to change in this field that might not otherwise be evident to communicators, such as the influences of religious and spiritual commitments on sexuality.

5. Missing the Message? 20 Years of Learning from HIV/AIDS

This report is a critical examination of the global response to HIV/AIDS. It outlines 3 areas requiring more emphasis, thought and attention: at policy level, particularly amongst donors, longer-term engagement, inclusiveness in consultation, more participatory decision-making and greater transparency; within the media, a critical reappraisal of media training, and changes to media structure, legislation and regulation; and within civil society, more emphasis on advocacy, and sophisticated relations with the media.

6. P-Process: Steps in Strategic Communication

The "P-Process" is used to develop communication programmes addressing a wide range of topics such as encouraging safer sexual behaviour to prevent HIV transmission, promoting child survival, reducing maternal mortality, increasing contraceptive prevalence, preventing infectious diseases, or promoting environmental health.

Research & Evaluation

Resources in this section focus on research and evaluation looking beyond specific initiatives or projects, placing health communication programmes and programming in a wider context. Research will look at overarching research questions that help to identify larger context questions, issues and data of help to a range of health communication programmes. Evaluation will look at underlying and general questions of evaluation as well as widely applicable methods related to health communication.

7. Assessing the Vietnam situation: HIV/AIDS communication in context

This literature review provides an overview of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam and represents the first part of a three-year research project. It includes a specific focus on reaching youth with HIV/AIDS information through various communication channels and strategies in Vietnam based on lessons learned in specific projects.br>

8. Impact of Mass Media Campaigns on Intentions To Use The Female Condom in Tanzania

Population Services International (PSI) introduced the female condom in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania toward the end of 1998. Organisers say that studies have shown that the combination of interpersonal interventions and mass media campaigns can have a measurable impact on reproductive behaviour. Findings here are consistent with the results of this research and show that interpersonal and mass media interventions have independent effects. This study also supports the strategy of including mass media promotion, peer education, and provider explanation of condom use in programmes designed to promote use of the female condom.

9. Study to Describe Barriers to Childhood Vaccination in Mozambique

This study gathered quantitative and qualitative information about problems, barriers, and successes in relation to vaccination services in 36 communities of Mozambique. The results point to lack of a basic understanding of routine vaccination, which may affect parents' demand for vaccination services and a lack of adherence to the vaccination schedule.

Lectures & Speeches

Resources in this section focus on speeches, addresses or presentations specifically focused on health communication.

These are not open to rating or review.

10. Delivering Clean Water for All - Richard Jolly

This explores the Millennium Development Goal for water from the perspective of sanitation and hygiene. Richard Jolly argues that with political commitment, a clear policy focus, and a modest allocation or re-allocation of resources, meeting this MDG is challenging but achievable. One aim of this paper is to cast 3 myths about global goals aside: that global goals are never taken seriously, that they focus on the wrong issues and that they only imply top-down action on the part of governments.

Contact Secretariat for the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council R.Jolly@ids.ac.uk

11. Use of 'Fear Appeals' in Public Health Campaigns and in Patient/Provider Encounters - Kim Witte

Kim Witte argues that fear appeals have gotten a bad rap in public health. Practitioners and creative talent often instinctively use fear to motivate behaviour change, yet sometimes it is not politically correct to do so. This presentation and the book on which it is based emphasise that nearly ALL public health campaigns generate either direct or indirect fear (because they may outline risks or negative consequences of not adopting a particular health behaviour). Because of this, practitioners need to focus on "Managing Fear" instead of ignoring it and pretending it's not there if we don't do explicit fear appeals.

Contact Kim Witte wittek@msu.edu

This issue was prepared by Chris Morry.

The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.


Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com


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