Consider the following scenario: You are working with a global health organization in
South Sudan during an Ebola outbreak and are tasked with controlling the outbreak.
Individual and community level behavior changes are necessary, but you are encountering
misconceptions about the outbreak. What strategies would you select for disseminating
credible, culturally appropriate information to this community to combat misconceptions?
What efforts would you take to empower the community to make behavior changes
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As stipulated by Schipper et al. (2016), the dissemination and implementation of the healthcare
recommendations, in most case, is often directed towards the professionals as opposed to the
patients. As such, the patients lack the awareness of their existence and the ability to access the
publications. In other cases, language barriers and failure to comprehend the academic and
medical terminologies act obstacles to the dissemination process. Most fundamentally, the
limited access among the patients to the relevant information inhibits the comprehension of
preventive and treatment measures, which may further result in misconceptions regarding the
scope and effect of a particular disease. Nonetheless, the dissemination of credible, culturally-
appropriate information to the community in South Sudan would involve the implementation of
layman versions of the recommended behavioral changes and measures for controlling the
outbreak. These should be coupled with the involvement of good-informed community leaders
and public members in the decision-making, treatment, and creation of awareness processes
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(Schipper et al. 2016). This way, the community members would be comfortable with the
decisions made concerning treatment, which would further translate to the improvement of their
adherence to the remedies provided. Additionally, these measures would contribute to the
reduction in the number of interventions applied among some patients, thereby leading to their
control.
Most fundamentally, the efforts that should be taken towards empowering the community
to make behavior changes include ensuring that the information disseminated is easy to
understand and accessible. The attainment of this objective would necessitate translating the
information from the English version into other languages used by the community members.
Moreover, the content in the information or recommendations disseminated should be adjusted to
address the specific data needs of the community members, while maintaining the particular
rigor across the nation (Schipper et al. 2016). Accurately, the use of relatable instances on the
scope, effects, and risk factors, as well as measures that can curb its spread, should be
disseminated in languages understandable by the community members. This way, they would
comprehend the context of the information and potentially change their attitude and behavior
towards the disease and their daily living (Schipper et al. 2016).
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References
Schipper, K., Bakker, M., De Wit, M., Ket, J. C., & Abma, T. A. (2016). Strategies for
disseminating recommendations or guidelines to patients: A systematic
review. Implementation Science, 11(1).