The Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC) hosted a three-day public health risk communication workshop at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Dec. 9-11.

The workshop focused on how to plan and execute communications to internal and external stakeholders on any issue that impacts their mission, both crisis and non-crisis.

Attendees were diverse and included personnel from the President, Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV), Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Office of the Secretary of the Navy, Naval Safety & Environmental Training Center, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and other area medical commands.

Professional specialties attending were broad and diverse, and included Industrial Hygienists, Epidemiologists, Public Affairs, Environmental Engineers, Environmental Health, Occupational Medicine and Audiologists.

The training team included Dr. Paul Gillooly, NMCPHC Environmental Programs, and Keith Fulton and Sandy Martinez president and CEO respectively of Fulton Communications, all who specialize in communications consulting and training with decades of experience.

"At the end of the day, whether it is a local food-borne illness outbreak, a global infectious disease outbreak such as Ebola, or a safe drinking water issue, it all boils down to health," said Gillooly. "People want to know whether they have been exposed, what their risk is, how does it affect their health, their families' health, and will that exposure cause illness and disease later in life."

"We know from experience and research that people have a broad concept of risk that is both complex and incorporates considerations such as uncertainty, controllability, trust, equity, catastrophic potential and risk to future generations into their personal risk equation," added Gillooly.

To effectively communicate both one on one and in writing using key messages to a larger audience of stakeholders, risk communicators must be acutely aware of these risk perception factors and how people decide something is a risk and how bad that risk is to them personally.

"Otherwise we run the risk of escalating instead of de-escalating a health risk issue," said Gillooly.

The training was well-received by attendees, including Lt. Anthony Allen, one of four Industrial Hygiene Officer Inspectors from INSURV who attended the course.

"We learned to communicate more effectively, whether it be verbal or nonverbal, internal or external to our command," said Allen. "The tools provided will help our team better present results and more appropriately interact with a broad range of responses - a skill all professionals should learn."

Ms. Jessica Newton, NMCPHC Health Analysis Department, was one of many Public Health Center epidemiologists in attendance. She was quick to point out the importance and relevance of the training to epidemiologists, who study health in populations to understand the causes and patterns of health and illness.

"This course helps us tailor our messages to both internal and external stakeholders," said Newton. "Lessons learned can be applied in all areas of our work and will enhance our department's products and services."

"The tools and resources presented in this class will help us effectively communicate clinical analytical findings to audiences with varying backgrounds. This will ensure the most efficient use of our analytic products," said Ms. Jenny Snyder, NMCPHC Health Analysis Department.

According to Lt. Cmdr. Rollin Clayton, from the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Safety), the opportunity to interact and network with other public health practitioners from a variety of organizations and backgrounds was invaluable.

"The convening power of NMCPHC Risk Communication course is unmatched," said Clayton. "This course provided state-of-the-science knowledge on designing effective risk communication messages to improve communication outcomes while offering tools and techniques to help stakeholders make better decisions."

From the Public Affairs perspective, Rebecca Perron, Public Affairs Officer at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth expressed her belief that risk communication training fits perfectly with the concepts of crisis communication practiced by public affairs officers.

"The course teaches and reinforces how to communicate with a variety of stakeholders, and offers the communication tools and techniques to effectively inform them about potential risks," said Perron. "The role play exercises were critical in reinforcing these concepts. Whether those attending the course are new to communication concepts or seasoned communicators, the role play puts everyone in the mind frame for what to expect from the audience and how to respond to specific types of questions. The ability of Keith and Sandy to role play an audience member and transition into a teaching point really brought everything together."

Lt. Cmdr. Jessica Hameed, NMCPHC Occupational & Environmental Medicine Physician observed that the course can be especially useful to health care professionals having to explain and discuss health risk concerns and deliver 'bad news' to their patients and family members.

"The course is definitely not just for those who think they may have to present at a town hall meeting or hold a press conference in the setting of a crisis," said Hameed. "Improved communication skills through training and practice can prevent numerous bad outcomes and experiences. This course was extremely well taught with energetic and entertaining expert course instructors."

Sandy Martinez of Fulton Communications summed it up by stating "Our goal is to build a network of Navy environment, safety and health scientists who can on a daily basis develop strategies to help ensure people get the information they need, when they need it, and in a format they can easily understand. This will help build and maintain trust and credibility, resolve conflict and ensure the long-term success of our Navy organizational goals."

In addition to conducting this workshop, NMCPHC is also available to conduct Executive Risk Communication Briefs and Site and Topic-Specific Training for Environment, Safety and Health Projects.

More information about products, services and downloads are available at the NMCPHC Webpage: http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmcphc/environmental-programs/Pages/risk-communication.aspx.


For more news from Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, visit www.navy.mil/.