Engaging the Target Audience
The proposed public health campaign aims to stop the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone. The target audience is Sierra Leone citizens. There is no demographic distinction of this population because the disease could affect anybody in the country. Sensitizing everybody about how to prevent new infections and manage existing ones are useful strategies for improving the welfare of everyone in the country. The target audience is broad in this regard.
How to Involve the Target Audience in the Public Health Campaign
Engaging the target audience is part of the communication strategy for the public health campaign. Key factors that would affect the strategy include the demographic composition of the target audience, previous strategies used to engage the target audience, and the views of opinion leaders within the community (Glanz, Rimer, &Viswanath, 2008). The proposed public health campaign would have only three engagement strategies – social media engagement, media engagement, and direct engagement with public health officials. Since the health campaign targets people from all cadres of society, social media would be a good platform to generate interest in the public health campaign (Glanz et al., 2008). Public health officials would also use media to engage the audience. Particularly, we will pay attention to radio as the main mode of communication in this regard. Lastly, the public health campaign would use volunteers (direct interaction) to reach rural populations. This strategy would help to bridge the communication gap that stems from the inadequacy of the country’s health system to reach rural populations through social media or direct interaction with health workers.
How to Promote Public Relations With the Target Audience
Social Marketing – Social marketing aims to promote a social idea, or concept, within one demographic group (Glanz et al., 2008). In public health campaigns, social marketing involves the use of marketing and technology tools to shape people’s health behaviors. Public health officials do not use social marketing tools to change people’s health behaviors only, but also foster a healthy community (Glanz et al., 2008). Engaging the target audience is a pragmatic approach of this public health campaign because it integrates the prevailing social, political, and economic dynamics during public health formulation processes (Parker & Thorson, 2009). Moreover, it is able to integrate theory and practice by including various health models and theories in health promotion.
Monitoring: The monitoring process would occur after the end of the public health campaign. Using this strategy, public health officials should answer questions that the target audience could have about proposed public health interventions. This strategy would also contribute to an effective health monitoring process (Parker & Thorson, 2009).
Behavior Changes I Hope to Support Among the Target Audience and Their Potential Benefits
Controlling the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone does not only depend on the success of hospital-based interventions; health workers have to reach local communities and educate them about the causes of the disease, to prevent them from contracting it in the first place. However, factors that stem from retrogressive community practices and cultural factors could impede their efforts. Based on this fact, this paper strives to support positive behavior changes to manage Ebola. The following desired behavior changes would help to meet this goal
Disapproving Conspiracy Theories: Conspiracy theories about the origin of Ebola have inhibited efforts by public health workers to stop the spread of the disease (Mans, 2014). For example, some Sierra Leone communities refused to acknowledge that the disease exists. They believed proposed health interventions were a western plot to invade their privacy and conduct laboratory experiments on Africans. This is why some communities rejected some proposed health interventions and chased or killed health workers (Mans, 2014). When such incidences are rampant, it is difficult for the same health workers to manage Ebola. The proposed public health program seeks to end such conspiracy theories and create a better work environment for public health workers.
Altering Social Practices: New Ebola infections in Sierra Leone partly stemmed from contact with corpses of people who have died from the disease (Mans, 2014). Public health officials have strived to educate people about the dangers of upholding such risky health behaviors (as part of traditional burial practice). The proposed public health campaign would emphasize this point as part of a wider ploy to change social practices that undermine Ebola management strategies.
Potential Stakeholders
Potential stakeholders for the proposed public health campaign consist of people, or groups, that have an interest in the Ebola fight. Stakeholders are important in promoting positive behavior change. This paper identifies four important stakeholder groups in the Ebola management program.
Community: Public health workers should involve local communities in the Ebola campaign because this stakeholder group is instrumental in communicating culturally sensitive information about disease prevention (Mans, 2014).
National Government: The Sierra Leone government is possibly among the most important stakeholder groups in the Ebola campaign because it should give health services to its citizens
Nongovernmental Organizations – NGOs are significant stakeholders in the Ebola campaign because they should improve the welfare of residents of Sierra Leone. However, this responsibility applies to NGOs that work in the health sector.
International Organizations – International organizations often operate globally. In the health sector, these organizations include the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). The World Bank and the United Nations Commission for Africa are other organizations that may have an interest in the proposed health campaign.
How the Stakeholders Would Impact the Planning or Implementation Process
Community: Local communities could be effective partners in the Ebola fight because they have experienced the disease first-hand and could stop new infections when they happen. Although Ebola does not have a cure, communities could help to stop its cause by promoting positive behaviors among its members.
National Government: The Sierra Leone government, through its agencies, controls the health infrastructure of the country and has the logistical capabilities of seeking international help and simplifying the bureaucratic processes required of international volunteers who wish to give additional workforce, or drugs, to control the pandemic. The government could also help to disseminate health messages to the community because they have national data about different jurisdictions and could give valuable information about the type of communication strategies that health workers could use.
NGOs: NGOs could play advocacy and developmental roles when promoting the goals of the proposed health campaign. This way, they would disseminate good health practices among residents of Sierra Leone.
International Organizations: International organizations, such as the WHO, could encourage the development of health programs. They could contribute to the proposed campaign through research, advocacy and capacity building (Vaughan & Tinker, 2009). They could also invest in pilot programs and disseminate good health practices among residents of Sierra Leone.
Barriers of Accessing the Target Audience
Poor Health Infrastructure: The poor state of health infrastructure in Sierra Leone has partly contributed to the high rates of Ebola infection in the country. This challenge could also limit access to the target audience because without a proper health infrastructure, it would be difficult for health workers to reach vulnerable populations.
Media: The inadequate access to media platforms in some of the rural communities of Sierra Leone could limit access to the target audience. For example, the lack of television sets and radios in some rural communities of the West African country could make it difficult for health workers to communicate with such populations.
How to Address the Barriers and Challenges to Accessing the Target Audience
Using alternative health agencies (besides national health agencies) to reach medically underserved populations could help to overcome health challenges that stem from poor health infrastructure. For example, using local NGOs to disseminate health messages (instead of government agencies) could help to reach medically underserved populations. Using alternative communication platforms, such as using community leaders to reach rural populations, could also help to overcome media inadequacies in Sierra Leone. This is one benefit of involving all stakeholders in the public health campaign.
References
Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., &Viswanath, K. (Eds). (2008). Health behavior and healtheducation: Theory, research, and practice (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Mans, D. (2014). Behavior Change Is Key to the Eradication of Ebola. Web.
Parker, J. C., & Thorson, E. (Eds.). (2009). Health communication in the new media landscape. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Vaughan, E., & Tinker, T. (2009). Effective health risk communication about pandemic influenza for vulnerable populations. American Journal of Public Health, 99(1), 324-32.