[DrumBeatnet] COVID-19 - Required Strategies?

Drawing from your communication, social change, behaviour change, media for development, community engagement and/or research and policy development experience, knowledge, skill, and insight ...

... in your assessment, what are the three strategic and/or programming priorities and actions for an effective response to COVID-19?

 (Please either reply by email or click on this link above and below this post "Please click to review, comment and access any attachments" and post on the platform. )

1. Promoting hand hygiene, social distancing and other desired behaviors through mass/social media (and community dialogue, where safe)

2. Combatting stigma and discrimination related to COVID-19 through mass/social media (and community dialogue, where safe)

3. Promoting longer-term pandemic preparedness relating to wildlife wet markets, personal and social hygiene, climate change, etc. through a range of SBCC approaches 

I love a meme - in SA we have 3 cases (now 7) of Corona and everyone wants to wear a mask. We have 7 million cases of HIV but noone wants to wear a condom.

ALSO 

To put this in perspective there are 484,000 cases of Multidrug-resistant TB worldwide and a funding shortfall of $3.3 bn

The mortality rates of MDR TB are around 40%

We wrote an article that has been picked up about handwashing 

https://theconversation.com/yes-washing-our-hands-really-can-help-curb-the-spread-of-coronavirus-132915

Sue

Thank you for the lines.

On Thursday a Primary school teacher in Alava, Basque Country asked me for suggestions now that all the schools are closed down and people are confined at home.

I have prepared a website, initially for 6 to 10 year olds but open to all.

There everyday I will put in a new suggestion for exercises: warm ups, spontaneity and some simple mime techniques.

Everybody is welcome and apart from taking minds off the consternation of the moment we will better our imaginations.

The site is in 3 parts: Basque, Spanish and English

All can be reached at the original address.  www.teatromimo.com/Planes

And also, as from today.  www.teatromimo.com/quedaencasa

Wishing all

Health and Happiness

Peter Roberts

I've heard colleagues expressing surprise and frustration over the fact that the world seems not to have learned the lessons of decades of excellent communication efforts to change behaviors around hand-washing, social distancing, etc. to prevent or reduce contagion and pandemics.

It is frustrating, even infuriating – all that research, all those behavior and social change strategies, all those wonderful campaigns, all that funding... for naught? It certainly feels that way amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, in which many of the lessons of the past seem to have been lost and risk and SBCC communication have to be taught and learned all over again.

But reading this article in today's NY Times reminded me of the remarkable tenacity and perverse attraction of social norms and belief systems that resist science and health in almost all countries and contexts. These examples of harmful norms and social determinants dressed up in the garb of religion are part of what we are up against. 

I think they go a long way to explain why we must reinvent our practice and engage with communities in new ways, so that we aren't eternally frustrated and puzzled as to why so many people aren't adopting the behaviors generations of communicators have promoted.  

Robert

PS - I think this should be part of this thread: Slowing down the covid-19 outbreak: changing behaviour by understanding it

Issues during COVID-19 emergency preparedness and management: lessons learned from a cross-sectional Ebola study

.... with current high number of health personnel who are infected and continue to get infected, the poor hygiene practice and life style of people especially in hard to reach areas, e.g. in countries like Afghanistan, there is an assumption that the public and professional awareness about COVID-19 management, self-protection and precautionary measures may need more efforts. For instance, in Afghanistan, there is no study to indicate the level of awareness/preparedness of health facilities and health professionals in the county despite a relatively high number of COVID-19 confirmed cases.

I personally think the stated vital steps should be taking place in the country to identify gaps and fill them based on evidence. One could use lessons learned from previous epidemics and emergencies to think through implementation of such key steps. For instance, I would like to share an example of lessons learned from Ebola outbreak in 2014 in this regard ...

ED - for the full contribution please access this link

The COVID-19 Communication and Community Engagement HUB - the Network for Shared Knowledge and Active Dialogue in Support of Effective COVID-19 Action

Sustaining Public Health Systems through Effective Communication: Learnings from the Pandemic

May 21, 2020 06:30 PM (India time)

Coronavirus-19 is now reality in virtually all countries in the world.  The manner of communication — notably by government leaders — can be diverse and spotty at times — causing disparate levels of effectiveness. Timely, credible and regular communication is critical to keeping citizens safe and to managing the Covid pandemic.

Please join in as health and communication experts from one of the most populous countries in the world and the most resource-rich country share their insights. 

The Panel: Aman Gupta, Prof Vivekanand Jha: Anjali Nayyar and Denise Gray-Felder

In association with The George Institute for Global Health and Health Issues India

Please Register here
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4015894349119/WN_NAaohfAjSiaI408u0Xhs7g