Risk Communication in Public Health Emergencies

This book clearly explains how public health officials plan, deliver, and evaluate crisis and emergency risk communication before, during, and after health emergencies. Organized into four parts - precrisis planning, communicating during a health emergency, communicating and evaluating after a health emergency, and crisis leadership - it offers practical information as well as the opportunity to reflect on emergency risk communication best practices and theories. Including information on precrisis planning, implications of public health law, developing communication plans, writing messages, evaluating emergency risk communication, and crisis leadership, this book brings together theory and practical application to provide working professionals with evidence-based research and practical knowledge to effectively communicate during health emergencies. Case studies of emergencies such as COVID-19, Zika, Ebola, Mpox, and water crises all use the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework to analyze how health officials provided accurate and actionable health information to the public.

• Offers an inner look at how health and medical practitioners plan for, and implement, emergency risk communication
• Provides an opportunity to consider the text and reflect on how it applies to practice, using though-provoking inquiry questions for the reader
• Written by an expert who has worked in local, state and federal public health who is able to convey information in a readable and relatable way
• Provides theoretical knowledge and experiential knowledge that public health practitioners can apply to issues they may face. 'Lessons learned' provide real-world insights grounded in theory
• Highly applicable for Masters of Public Health students