Citation

Crouse Quinn S. Health Promot. Pract. 2008; 9(4): 18S-25S.

Affiliation

Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Society for Public Health Education, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1524839908324022

PMID

18936256

Abstract

As public health agencies prepare for pandemic influenza, it is evident from our experience with Hurricane Katrina that these events will occur in the same social, historical, and cultural milieu in which marked distrust of government and health disparities already exist. This article grapples with the challenges of crisis and emergency risk communication with special populations during a pandemic. Recognizing that targeting messages to specific groups poses significant difficulties at that time, this article proposes a model of community engagement, disaster risk education, and crisis and emergency risk communication to prepare minority communities and government agencies to work effectively in a pandemic, build the capacity of each to respond, and strengthen the trust that is critical at such moments. Examples of such engagement and potential strategies to enhance trust include tools familiar to many health educators.

Language: en