The health belief model (HBM) would outline the main framework for implementing the public health campaign. It posits that most people would adopt health-promoting behaviors if they perceive the cost of noncompliance to be higher than the cost of compliance (Westmaas, Gil-Rivas, & Silver, 2014). If we extrapolate this concept to the Sierra Leone context, the public health campaign would have to make the local communities understand that the cost of their cultural practices (that lead to the spread of Ebola) is higher than the cost of complying with health-promoting behaviors. Timing is essential in this health communication plan because retrogressive cultural practices make it difficult for health providers to prevent new infections, on time, or to quarantine newly infected persons. To realize a positive outcome, the cues to action would be educating the local communities about the need for reporting suspected cases of Ebola, because the failure to do so would cause a greater calamity (Westmaas et al., 2014). In collaboration with community leaders, public health workers would visit homes and pass this message. Similarly, they would communicate the same message through media outlets. For example, the media campaign would educate local community members about how Ebola kills people quickly. This communication plan should increase the levels of perceived threats of Ebola within local communities. The efficacy of this intervention is high because public health researchers have reported positive results after using it to reduce breast cancer incidents and the rates of HIV infection in other African settings (Westmaas et al., 2014).
One possible barrier to the above-mentioned implementation plan is personal beliefs, attitudes, and values because they could prevent community members from adopting health-promoting behaviors. This problem could easily emerge among Sierra Leone communities because they value their traditional cultural practices (Westmaas, Gil-Rivas, & Silver, 2014). Indeed, they could resist new health interventions that oppose their traditional practices or beliefs (Green-Smith, 2008). The failure of health providers to understand these cultural beliefs and attitudes would undermine the goals of the proposed health campaign because it would be difficult for them to design the public health campaigns to address the community’s underlying attitudes and beliefs. Secondly, the lack of individual capacities to undertake change could undermine the public health campaign as well. For example, within the patriarchal African culture, women and children are often unable to make health decisions without the consent of their fathers, or male figures in the society (Green-Smith, 2008). Public health workers have reported this problem in HIV awareness and prevention campaigns (Green-Smith, 2008). For example, some women often lack the power to force their husbands, or partners, to use condoms. The same challenge could emerge in Sierra Leone because even if women understood that their cultural practices are risky, but their husbands did not share the same opinion, there would be insignificant progress in reducing new Ebola infections. Similarly, it would be difficult for the same demographic to practice health-promoting behaviors that prevent the further spread of Ebola even if it understood the benefits of doing so. Collectively, these dynamics may affect the implementation process of the Ebola public health campaign.
Based on the challenges identified above, it is pertinent to find effective strategies that would address the above barriers to the proposed public health campaign. To address the lack of knowledge and awareness about Ebola, it is important to issue education materials (pamphlets) to community members that would educate them about the epistemology of the disease and its prevention strategies (Westmaas et al., 2014). Informal meetings to sensitize fathers and husbands about the need for allowing members of their families to make personal health choices would also help to empower women and children to make personal health decisions that would protect them from Ebola. Collectively, these strategies may address the barriers to the proposed public health campaign.
References
Glanz, K., Rimer, B., & Viswanath, K. (2008). Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice. London, UK: John Wiley & Sons.
Green-Smith, D. (2008). The Influence of Culture: African Immigrant Women’s Experiences of Their HIV/AIDS Status in the United States. New York, NY: ProQuest.
Westmaas, J., Gil-Rivas, V., & Silver, R. (2014). Designing and Implementing Interventions to Promote Health and Prevent Illness. Web.