As the media is filled with stories aobut coronavirus, most news articles focus on numbers of cases and deaths, new locations of cases, etc.
Lost in the shuffle are the important public health insights about how viruses work and humans respond. To help improve understanding of an emerging outbreak’s complex dynamics, The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health‘s Global Health Now (GHN) has reached out to some of the world’s most respected global health experts for their quick “reality checks” on key issues related to the outbreak.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Advice for the Public
On this page the World Health Organizations provides basic protective measures against COVID-19. This includes frequent handwashing, respiratory hygiene, social distancing, and other measures.
Social and Behavior Change for Nutrition – Online Course
Interventions to foster changes in behaviors and social norms are an important aspect of efforts to reduce malnutrition around the world. This course aims to demystify SBC design as well as share useful SBC-related resources.
The course assists practioners in understanding some SBC models that explain why people behave in certain ways, how behaviors change, and how SBC strategies apply these models in designing behavior-centered programs
The Circle of Care Model (Arabic version here) demonstrates how service delivery and SBC can strategically align to improve health outcomes. It is a framework for understanding how SBC interventions, particularly strategic communication, can be used along the service delivery continuum – before, during and after services. Fundamental to the model is recognition of SBC’s value in understanding clients and providers. This principle is overarching and grounds the model so that the needs, perspectives and wants of both clients and providers are placed at the forefront of program planning. At each stage, three explicit areas are identified where SBC can be used to influence attitudes and behaviors among clients and providers. The end result is more effective service delivery programs that meet the needs of the intended audiences and contribute to improved health outcomes
The model is intended for anyone working to improve service-related health outcomes. The assumption is that users of the model have some understanding of SBC, including the use of strategic communication.
Three key principles support this model:
Effective coordination among SBC and service delivery partners – promotes common understanding regarding program planning, message development, intervention approaches and monitoring and evaluation
Segmenting, prioritizing and profiling of key audiences – helps to understand the intended audience and learn about their specific needs, values and barriers to change
Address providers as a behavior change audience – ensures providers are seen as individuals who have needs and barriers to adopting desired behaviors related to their performance.
The Arabic version of the Circle of Care document – نموذج دائرة الرعاية – is also available via the “Download” button on this page.
The WHO Global Malaria Programme’s T3: Test. Treat. Track. initiative supports malaria-endemic countries in their efforts to achieve universal coverage with diagnostic testing and antimalarial treatment, as well as in strengthening their malaria surveillance systems. The initiative seeks to focus the attention of policy-makers and donors on the importance of adopting WHO’s latest evidence-based recommendations on diagnostic testing, treatment and surveillance, and on updating existing malaria control and elimination strategies, as well as country-specific operational plans.
This resource features key policy messages from WHO’s recommendations on diagnostic testing, treatment and surveillance of every suspected malaria case, which promotes that every suspected malaria case should be tested, every confirmed case should be treated with quality-assured antimalarial medicine and the disease should be tracked through a timely and accurate surveillance system. The initiative was launched on World Malaria Day 2012 and is designed around three core WHO documents:
Universal access to malaria diagnostic testing: an operational manual
Guidelines for the treatment of malaria, second edition
Disease surveillance for malaria control, and disease surveillance for malaria elimination
Hormonal Contraceptive Eligibility for Women at High Risk of HIV- FAQs
This is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) about how the World Health Organization developed its guidelines for hormonal contraception and women at high risk for HIV, as well as basic facts about this issue. Some of the questions are:
Do hormonal contraceptives protect against HIV infection?
Does using hormonal contraceptives increase the risk of contracting HIV?
What is dual protection?
What can be done to increase the ability of women and girls to practice dual protection?
Can women living with HIV use hormonal contraceptives?
Who should decide on what option is best for women and girls?
Are the current options available for HIV prevention and contraception enough?
SRH and HIV Linkages Compendium: Indicators & Related Assessment Tools
This Compendium is built around the different themes in the theory of change and includes a focused set of indicators and related assessment tools that have direct and indirect relevance to tracking the links between SRH and HIV programmes at national and sub-national levels.
Related assessment tools are used to capture progress where individual indicators are not available. As efforts to link these programmes continue to gain traction in countries around the world, the compendium will evolve to include additional indicators and related assessment tools that provide useful data on critical issues related to SRH and HIV linkages.
These TV spots were aimed at improving the image of pharmacists in Egypt via the AskConsult project.
AskConsult was the private-sector component of the Egypt Communication for Healthy Living Porject, 2003-2011. It was designed to increase the trust in pharmacists by improving their interpersonal commiunication skills.
AskConsult, directly trained 5,500 private-sector pharmacists in interpersonal communication to build their capacity to fulfill customers’ demand for credible health information. AskConsult provided fact sheets, e-mail newsletters and online training modules its affiliated network of 30,000 privately-owned pharmacies. AskConsult encouraged the broader private sector to increase its participation in the practice of strategic health communication: Through AskConsult, CHL formed partnerships with 27 private-sector companies that leveraged more than $7.2 million worth of cash and in-kind contributions in support of USAID health priorities. The AskConsult activity also directly produced a sustainable entity, AskConsult for Health LLC, an Egyptian not-for-profit corporation that began developing non-USAID-funded health communication partnerships even before the end of the CHL project.
Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs
Catalog of Project Tools and Resources for Social and Behavior Change Communication
This catalog is a compendium of HC3’s core products for SBCC capacity strengthening, implementation, research, monitoring and evaluation. It provides basic information about each tool and URLs to access them online. The tools listed in this catalog are designed for a global audience and many are adaptable for multiple country contexts. Some are specific to a health area while many cut across various health areas which is indicated with icons in the legend below. HC3’s country programs have also produced a vast array of innovative tools and materials for SBCC programs in many different health areas.
