COVID-19 for SBCC Practitioners: Part 2

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[drishyadhakal]

During crisis and disaster, the aim of any public health
program is to make sure that the health of people must be maintained at optimum
level regardless of the disaster befallen upon public at the time, by any
means. The main requirement at that point would be change in certain behaviors
and making them public more alert due to the situation of increased risk. So,
social behavior change, risk communication, community engagement are some of
the main overlapping responsibilities of such programs.





Community should be kept at the core of such programs or
efforts. Message should be prepared according the disaster occurred and the
required change in public behaviors. Having said that, just providing right
message is not enough as behavior change is very complex phenomenon. Knowledge,
attitude and practice are the components of behavior which must be assessed if
feasible. Provided message should be the mixture of implying fear and efficacy.
Little bit of fear so that people should realize that they must change and
efficacy so that they should think they can do it too. And as we have learnt
from the past, if people are asked to change action totally out of fear it
backfires, creates stigma, etc which makes the situation worse. Thus feeling of
social responsibility, trust, do ability, positivity in the message is key to
make them realize fear without actual threat. In special kind of disasters,
like COVID – 19, traditional means of providing message might not work due to
required social distancing,   so
innovation in passing message is to be done. Along with the right message,
right messenger is also required for actual change. Coordinating with local
leaders, religious leaders, role models to make public realize that it is not
too hard to take actions, etc is very helpful. Along with that, in this age of
information, tracking rumors out there in the public and clearing them time to
time is also important task. Clear two way communication, community engagement,
understanding how people are already adopting to change so that we can teach
them in the same line for easiness, etc are the essential components to be
considered.





And specially, in the current scenario, making people
understand that the new normal is coming where we need to be alert even after
enforced lockdown period is very important too.