Download Powerpoint - Southern Center for Communication, Health

Communicating Health Disparities: Health
Communication with Special Populations
Presented by
C. Ashani Turbes, Ph.D.
Southern Center for Communication, Health & Poverty
Macro International, Inc.
June 5, 2007
Presentation Objectives
 Framing: To identify issues to consider in identifying
how strategies to address public health issues,
particularly related to STDs, should be framed for
Black audiences
 Communication: To discuss strategies to
communicate public health issues, particularly
related to STDs, for Black audiences
 Public Participation: To discuss participatory
engagement of the public in issue framing and
grappling and identifying communication strategies
Diversity in African American
Communities
 Multiple audience segments in the “African American
community”
 Framing and communication should be attentive to:
 Age, Sex, Socioeconomic status, Sexual orientation,
sexual risk, geographic region (rural vs. urban), etc.
 Framing must take into account the “culture of the
African American communities” (values, aspirations)
Feature Studies
 Multiple Risk Factors (Southern Center)
 Preconception Health (Southern Center)
 Black Women & Mass Media (Macro)
 STD & HPV Focus Groups Study (Macro)
Feature studies continued…
 Multiple Risk Factors
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Focus groups with
adults in rural and
urban settings
Concern about
HIV/STDs
Desire to hear
messages from
“people like us.”
Belief in racism, but
trust of doctors
Government mistrust
Using the Internet
 Preconception Health
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Focus groups with adult
women in rural and urban
settings
Concern about HIV/STDs
Shame about STDs
Trust in doctors
Reliance on family for
health information
Using the Internet
Feature studies continued…
 Black Women & Mass
Media
 Focus groups with
women in small urban
settings
 Concern about
HIV/STDs
 Trusted sources
 Using Black Radio
 Hearing from person
“like us” - Use of
spokesperson (with the
disease)
 STD/HPV Focus Groups
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Focus groups with
adults in rural and
urban settings
Stigma of STDs
Shame about STDs
Desire for
spokesperson “like us”
Trusted information
sources
Issue Framing
 How an issue is defined (or how the story is
told)
 What in the issue is considered most
important (Reich 1989; Best 1989)
 What the public thinks about the issue (how
the public structures that issue in the world)
Issues for Framing
 Trust (a barrier)
 Stigma/Shame
 Personal Responsibility
Issues continued…
 Consider STDs together
 Can’t compartmentalize diseases
 Deep Structure Culture (versus Surface
structure of a culture)
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History of racism and its relationship to trust,
power, and control
Value systems (Faith in God)
Desire for community respect
Attitudes about sex
Communication Strategies
 Reaching out to salient referents
 Role
of family/friends
 Engaging trusted sources
 Faith
community, leaders, celebrities,
People “like us”
Strategies continued…
 Using the Internet
 The
shrinking digital divide
 The radio as communication tool
 Using
“Black” radio to reach African
American audiences
Other communication strategies
 Entertainment-Education
 Interactive Health Communication
 Interpersonal Communication
Public/Community Engagement
 It is essential to understand and work within
an audience’s value system in order to reach
them in ways that are relevant to them, not
only personally but relevant to their broader
community. To this end “it is important to
engage all sectors of society” (Bernhardt
2006; Maibach 2006).
Public/Community Engagement
 Public engagement is an effort to involve all
sectors of a community in ongoing public
deliberation about an issue; this effort should
allow participants to collaborate, strengthen
citizen ties, and build common ground to
make decisions about issues affecting a
community.
Engaging the public… Why?
 To gain deep knowledge of culture
 To better understand value systems
 To empower individuals and a community
to become engaged in health issues
affecting their community
 To hold government and public health
officials accountable
Why engage continued…
 To create an environment of social learning in a
community
 To respect need for issue “grappling”
 To recognize the value of public “experiential
knowledge” as “expertise” necessary to address
public health issues
 To obtain information on viable communication/
dissemination strategies for a community
“We must work collaboratively with
communities experiencing disparities to
overcome the historical context of distrust
and create meaningful, effective health
communication interventions.”
Friemuth & Quinn, 2004
Discussion Questions
 What issues have you considered to identify how
specific strategies should be framed with your
audiences, in their communities?
 What communication strategies have you used with
diverse audiences? Have they been successful?
Why or why not?
 How have you engaged the public in making
decisions about STD risk reduction for Black
audiences?
Questions & Comments
For more information contact
C. Ashani Turbes, Ph.D.
Project Manager
Macro International Inc.
3 Corporate Square, Suite 370
Atlanta, Georgia 30329