Communicating includes sending and receiving messages. Effective communicators take time to learn the values, attitudes, beliefs, and preferences of their intended audiences. By understanding who makes up the audience, a communicator can develop messages that resonate with the audience, motivating them to take action. For public health emergency risk communicators this means creating messages that educate and motivate people to protect their health during an emergency. This chapter explains how to identify audiences through audience segmentation by identifying risk variables such as age, health status, and geographic location. Stakeholder management theory provides critical insights into how to work and communicate with partners, stakeholders, and the public during a health emergency. Key information about public health laws including libel, slander, HIPPA and Right to Know is included, analyzing how public health laws impact emergency risk communication. Descriptions of public health powers for state and local health departments are included. A student case study analyzes the Jackson, Mississippi, Water Crisis using the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework. Reflection questions are included at the end of the chapter.

Health agencies that receive federal funding are required to have public information plans in place that meet specific functional criteria. Emergency risk communicators need to build upon those functional requirements of a crisis communication plan to ensure the plan can be used as a support for strategic communications. Communicators can do this by identifying segmented audiences and communication channels, and developing key messages in the precrisis phase as outlined by Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) principles. This chapter seeks to build upon the work health departments have already done and to offer insights into how to optimize and streamline communication plans that can be tailored to a health agency’s needs and resources. It explains why communication planning is a critical step in emergency risk communications and how to combine federal funding requirements and the CERC framework to ensure a functional emergency risk communication plan. The chapter outlines how to build sustainable crisis communications teams and how to test messages to assess whether your organization’s emergency risk communication messages will resonate with audiences. The chapter includes mini-case study examples of the Oregon Douglas Complex Fire and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome emergency responses to deepen learning related to adapting communication plans and to simple message testing with community stakeholders. A student case study analyzes the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment using the CERC framework. Reflection questions are included at the end of the chapter.

When health threats are mitigated, the emergency moves into what is known as the "recovery phase." During the recovery phase health officials communicate that the health threat has been mitigated and that the community will move toward a "new normal," express empathy, and continue to state the agency’s commitment to the community. Additionally, the health agency can engage in educating the public about lessons learned during the health response and how to prepare for future emergencies. This chapter outlines how to engage with policymakers after a health emergency. The chapter describes the importance of memorials during the recovery phase and how public health agencies can support communities that want to memorialize large-scale health emergencies. It will also address how agency leadership engages with staff as response operations de-escalate and surge staff return to their regular public health work. The chapter provides practical tips on how to write recovery messages and provides quick response communication planning and implementation steps such as identifying communication objectives, audiences, key messages, and channels and developing communication products/materials. This chapter also includes key tips related to spokespeople, partner agencies, and call centers to ensure message consistency is achieved during the response. Mindfulness is highlighted. A student case study analyzes the COVID-19 outbreak in Georgia using the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework. Reflection questions are included at the end of the chapter.

COVID-19 saw many career health officials retire early and seasoned health practitioners simply quit due to burnout. This chapter explores various qualities that leaders can utilize to provide and receive support when faced with stressors and challenges in both their work and personal lives. Personal assessments like Myers–Briggs, DISC, the Gallup Strengths Finder, and the Enneagram offer practical tools for members of leadership to identify their strengths and areas for growth. Identifying stressors and engaging in self-regulation ensure public health leaders can mitigate burnout. Leadership qualities are outlined and described. By cultivating leadership qualities, crisis leaders can stay focused and grounded during health emergencies. Transformation leadership theory is described. A student case study uses the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework to analyze former Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern’s communication during the COVID-19 outbreak. End-of-chapter reflection questions and activities are included.

The first 24–48 hours of a health emergency require the responding health agency to communicate with the public about what they know, what they don’t know, and what they are doing to find new information. By engaging in initial messages early in a crisis, health agencies can demonstrate credibility and build trust with the public. This chapter deconstructs initial messages and identifies four critical message components: addressing uncertainty, expressing empathy, making a commitment, and providing messages of self-efficacy. By delivering initial messages early and often a health agency can demonstrate the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) principles of Be First, Be Right, Be Credible, Show Respect, Express Empathy, and Promote Action. The chapter provides practical steps on how to write initial messages and provides quick response communication planning and implementation steps such as identifying communication objectives, audiences, key messages, and channels and developing communication products/materials. This chapter also includes key tips related to spokespeople, partner agecies, and call centers regarding ensuring message consistency during an emergency response. Uncertainty reduction theory is highlighted. A student case study analyzes the Flint Water Crisis using the CERC framework. Reflection questions are included at the end of the chapter.

Spokespeople play a critical role during health emergencies in communicating credible, accurate, and actionable messages to the public. Effective spokespeople not only gain the public’s support during health emergencies but also personalize the health agency. Through professionalism, trustworthiness, authenticity, reliability, and clear communication, spokespeople build trust with the public each time they address the media or deliver a speech. This chapter describes the role of a spokesperson and why this role is critical to emergency response operations. It outlines ideal characteristics of a spokesperson including professionalism, experience working with the media, involvement with decision-making, trustworthiness, charisma, clarity of speech, and relatability. This chapter explains common spokesperson pitfalls and practical tips on how to avoid them. Media briefing and interview techniques on how to communicate effectively with the media are included. Agenda setting theory is described. A student case study uses the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework to analyze the communication of Dr. Nirav D. Shah, director of Maine’s Centers for Disease Control and Pevention, during the COVID-19 outbreak. End-of-chapter reflection questions are included.

Health emergencies create unique information needs for different audience segments. This chapter outlines the differences in information needs between the general public and the medical community. Information needs of the medical community relate to scientific guidance, data reporting, health risks, personal protective equipment, interventions, and treatments. By analyzing communications used during a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Clinical Outreach and Community Activity team webinar on COVID-19 vaccines, readers can identify the unique needs of the medical community. Epidemiologists and emergency risk communications can cocreate data-driven and actionable emergency messages when they collaborate. This chapter offers insights into how epidemiologists and emergency risk communicators can cocreate messages on health risks and interventions and leverage data graphics to help explain health risks to the public. The chapter also describes how health care practitioners can use and apply the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) framework within health care organizations to communicate to staff and patients. A student case study analyzes the US Ebola health emergency using the CERC framework. Reflection questions are included at the end of the chapter.

After the first 24–48 hours of a health emergency, the health emergency enters the maintenance phase. During the maintenance phase health officials provide maintenance messages that contain deeper risk explanations, promote interventions, continue to make commitments to the community, and address rumors and misinformation. Health emergencies often spend a lot of time in the maintenance phase, so it is imperative that emergency risk communicators provide clear, coordinated, and consistent messages about the health risks. By communicating credible, accurate, and actionable health information, a health agency can demonstrate the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) principles of Be First, Be Right, Be Credible, Show Respect, Express Empathy, and Promote Action. The chapter provides practical steps on how to write maintenance messages and provides quick response communication planning and implementation steps such as identifying communication objectives, audiences, key messages, and channels and developing communication products/materials. This chapter also includes key tips related to spokespeople, partner agencies, and call centers to ensure message consistency is achieved during the response. The rumor management framework is highlighted. A student case study analyzes the Mpox outbreak in Louisiana using the CERC framework. Reflection questions are included at the end of the chapter.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted individuals worldwide, regardless of their geographic location, religious or political beliefs, occupation, or social standing. People’s experiences were directly impacted by lockdown measures, physical distancing, masks, vaccine recommendations, or illness of self or friend or family member, as well as by how their local and national elected officials and public health leaders managed and communicated about the pandemic. As people went into lockdown, they went online and found a proliferation of information both true and false about the pandemic. The constant deluge of online information, the new and evolving outbreak, and the worldwide impact created a complex health emergency.  The COVID-19 pandemic brought emergency risk communication to the forefront of every health agency in the United States, from city to county to state to federal levels of government. This chapter provides an overview of public health preparedness; explains how Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) is different from day-to-day public health communication; summarizes the CERC framework and phase-based messaging; and outlines how risk perception impacts the way people process information about health threats. A student case study analyzes a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak using the CERC framework. Reflection questions are included at the end of the chapter.

This chapter outlines practical ways emergency risk communicators can use evaluation throughout a health emergency to inform and improve emergency risk communication messaging strategies and activities. The chapter starts with a basic orientation on program evaluation and its relevance to emergency risk communication. Next, the chapter provides an in-depth look at 16 communication evaluation activities that emergency risk communications can use throughout a health emergency. Then the chapter describes how organizations learn after health emergencies and how organizational learning can inform community resilience and public education. Next, the chapter outlines current theoretical research approaches to evaluating emergency risk communication and practical ways to apply this research during a health emergency. The chapter highlights the ADKAR model for organizational change management, and a student case study uses the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework to analyze how the Georgia Department of Health communicating during the e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) outbreak. End-of-chapter reflection questions are included.