BAGUIO CITY – – With disasters taking their toll on the vulnerable sectors of the population, the Department of Health (DOH) finds it important to come up with a communication plan on disaster risk reduction and management on health (DRRM-H) which serves as guide for various stakeholders from the national down to the local level.
DRRM-H managers and health education and promotion officers from the different regions in the country recently gathered here for a five-day workshop to come up with regional and national a communication plan as a roadmap in undertaking programs and activities on disaster prevention and preparedness particularly on health concerns.
Dr. Ronald P. Law, DOH Chief of the Preparedness Division of the Health Emergency Management Bureau, explained that the DRRM-H program is not only about training. It follows an integrated, systems-based, multisectoral approach.
“We are making systems and plans through strategies which we think could really help not only us, but also the people. We hope we are able to make this through the crafting of a communication plan,” he said.
Law underscored the importance of effective information and communication. People can only be safe if they know what to do even before, during and after any disaster, he said.
“If promotion, advocacy and communication can save lives, they have to be systematized and all these should be put in a plan that could address the needs of targets,” he stressed.
Professor Daniel Santos of the University of the Philippines School of Information Studies, main lecturer of the workshop, presented the basic concepts, principles, models and the elements of communication which participants could adopt in coming up with a communication plan. He also tackled crafting and delivery of appropriate messages in various platforms for specific target audiences.
“If you want to be effective as a communicator, you need to stick to certain principles of communication and you have to address all communication deficiencies that were presented,” he advised.
“When you communicate it is very important that you observe verbal rules or verbal precision, grammatical precision and mechanical precision, he said. Without those precision, you cannot expect to communicate effectively,” he added
The participants initially came up with clustered communication plans for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and were integrated into the draft national communication plan. Alongside is an action plan identifying the activities, responsible persons, timeframe and the expected budget for each of the activities.
The DOH regional offices are also expected to craft their own communication plans anchored on the needs of the local government units and the grassroots as the end-users. **JDP/SCA-PIA CAR
