"During public health emergencies, people need to know what health risks they face, and what actions they can take to protect their health and lives. Accurate information provided early, often, and in languages and channels that people understand, trust and use, enables individuals to make choices and take actions to protect themselves, their families and communities from threatening health hazards." -- Publisher's description.
THE ESSENTIAL HANDBOOK FOR EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATING ENVIRONMENTAL, SAFETY, AND HEALTH RISKS, FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED Now in its sixth edition, Risk Communication has proven to be a valuable resource for people who are tasked with the responsibility of understanding how to apply the most current approaches to care, consensus, and crisis communication. The sixth edition updates the text with fresh and illustrative examples, lessons learned, and recent research as well as provides advice and guidelines for communicating risk information in the United States and other countries. The authors help readers understand the basic theories and practices of risk communication and explain how to plan an effective strategy and put it into action. The book also contains information on evaluating risk communication efforts and explores how to communicate risk during and after an emergency. Risk Communication brings together in one resource proven scientific research with practical, hands-on guidance from practitioners with over 30 years of experience in the field. This important guide: Provides new examples of communication plans in government and industry, use of social media, dealing with "fake news," and new digital tools for stakeholder involvement and crisis communications Contains a new chapter on partnerships which covers topics such as assigning roles and expectations, ending partnerships, and more Presents real-world case studies with key lessons all risk communicators can apply. Written for engineers, scientists, professors and students, land use planners, public health practitioners, communication specialists, consultants, and regulators, the revised sixth edition of Risk Communication is the must-have guide for those who communicate risks.
"...this text...will become a reference for years to come." Health Expectations This is the first book to clearly assess the increasingly important area of communication of risk in the health sector. We are moving away from the days when paternalistic doctors managed healthcare without involving patients in decision making. With the current emphasis on patient empowerment and shared decision making, patients want and need reliable, comprehensive and understandable information about their conditions and treatment. In order to make informed decisions, the people concerned must understand the risks and benefits associated with possible treatments. But the challenge for health professionals is how best to communicate this complex medical information to diverse audiences. The book examines: Risk: defining and explaining how the term is used by different disciplines, how its meanings have changed over time and how the general public understand it Health communication and the effects on health behaviours Effective risk communication to individuals and the wider public Effectiveness of patient information leaflets, and strategies for improving oral and written health communications The cognitive and emotional issues at stake for patients in understanding risk and health information The use of new technologies in risk and health communication Ethical issues, and the future of risk communication Using examples from disciplines including psychology, sociology, health, medicine, pharmacy, statistics and business and management, this book is key reading for students who need to understand the effect of risk in health psychology as well as for health professionals interested in doctor-patient communication, informed consent and patient welfare.
Health and Risk Communication provides a critical and comprehensive overview of the core issues surrounding health and risk communication from the perspective of applied linguistics. It outlines the ways applied linguistics differs from other methods of understanding health and risk communication, assesses the benefits and limitations of the approaches used by different scholars in the field, and offers an innovative framework for consolidating past research and charting new directions. Utilizing data from clinical interactions and everyday life, this book addresses a number of crucial questions including: How are the everyday actions we take around health constructed and constrained through discourse? What is the role of texts in influencing health behaviour, and how are these texts put together and interpreted by readers? How are actions and identities around health and risk negotiated in situated social interactions, and what are the factors that influence these negotiations? How will new technologies like genetic screening influence the way we communicate about health? How does communication about health and risk help create communities and institutions and reflect and reproduce broader ideologies and patterns of power and inequality within societies? Health and Risk Communication: An Applied Linguistic Perspective is essential reading for advanced students and researchers studying and working in this area.
"Bringing together a wide variety of perspectives on risk communication, this up-to-date review of a high profile and topical area includes practical examples and lessons."--[Source inconnue].
The procedure uses approaches from risk and decision analysis to identity the most relevant information; it also uses approaches from psychology and communication theory to ensure that its message is understood. This book is written in nontechnical terms, designed to make the approach feasible for anyone willing to try it. It is illustrated with successful communications, on a variety of topics."--Jacket.
Health risk communication deals with planned or unplanned communication to the public about the nature, impact and management of a wide array of health threats, such as cancer, HIV/AIDS or influenza pandemics. Traditional health risk communication models used to stress a one-way flow of health risk messages to the public. The dominant focus was on experts (government, health organizations, merely disseminating risk information and educating a lay and ignorant public about health threats. However, this simplistic top-down model of communication ignored the complex nature of the audience and the publics understanding of risk information. Fortunately, there has been a shift away from top-down communication about health threats. This book gathers research findings and theoretical reviews with a focus on the role of mass media as sources of health risk information, the role of message formats or frames and risk information source characteristics.
THE ESSENTIAL HANDBOOK FOR EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATING ENVIRONMENTAL, SAFETY, AND HEALTH RISKS, FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED Now in its sixth edition, Risk Communication has proven to be a valuable resource for people who are tasked with the responsibility of understanding how to apply the most current approaches to care, consensus, and crisis communication. The sixth edition updates the text with fresh and illustrative examples, lessons learned, and recent research as well as provides advice and guidelines for communicating risk information in the United States and other countries. The authors help readers understand the basic theories and practices of risk communication and explain how to plan an effective strategy and put it into action. The book also contains information on evaluating risk communication efforts and explores how to communicate risk during and after an emergency. Risk Communication brings together in one resource proven scientific research with practical, hands-on guidance from practitioners with over 30 years of experience in the field. This important guide: Provides new examples of communication plans in government and industry, use of social media, dealing with "fake news," and new digital tools for stakeholder involvement and crisis communications Contains a new chapter on partnerships which covers topics such as assigning roles and expectations, ending partnerships, and more Presents real-world case studies with key lessons all risk communicators can apply. Written for engineers, scientists, professors and students, land use planners, public health practitioners, communication specialists, consultants, and regulators, the revised sixth edition of Risk Communication is the must-have guide for those who communicate risks.
Coordination of risk assessments and risk communication strategies requires information sharing and establishing networks of working relationships between groups and agencies. Establishing these relationships necessitates overcoming - stitutional, cultural, and political boundaries. Signi?cant barriers exist between r- ulatory agencies and industry groups. Traditionally, these groups have mistrusted one another, and cooperation and collaboration, including sharing information, c- respondingly has been limited. The adoption of radio frequency identi?cation te- nology for tracking livestock, for example, has been met with signi?cant resistance due in part to mistrust between regulatory agencies and producers (Veil, 2006). In the food industry, the need for coordination has been enhanced by industry in- gration and globalization of both markets and production. In the case of GM foods discussed earlier, disagreements between U. S. , European Union, and Canadian r- ulatory agencies fueled the debate over the safety of GM crops. Overcoming institutional and cultural barriers, and mistrust is necessary to create consistency in risk messages. Open communication and information sharing can help clarify where risk perceptions diverge and identify points of convergence. The outcome may not be universal agreement about risks, but convergence around the general parameters of risk. Summary These best practice strategies of risk communication are not designed to function as distinct steps or isolated approaches. Rather than being mutually exclusive, they serve to complement one another and create a coherent approach to confronting risk communication problems.
