For public health professionals, communicating the right information to their community members can be challenging. And without an understanding of the key concepts and strategies that define effective communication, many professionals don’t know where to start.
In this 90-minute course, you will identify ways to successfully reach community members with core messaging to advance public health. By following the story of one environmental public health team, you will see examples of how to engage a number of different audiences using a four-part approach - educating, communicating, resolving conflict, and marketing - in service of the core competencies that make up environmental public health work.
Note: the title of this course was changed to Effective Communication for Public Health in July 2025.
Estimated time to complete: 1.5 hours
If you work in public health, during a crisis or emergency, you will likely become a risk communicator, even if your job description does not include public information or media relations. Effective communication is vital to protect the community's health. Communication with the public and the media in an emergency presents unique challenges. People are highly emotional. They want to know what happened and who is responsible. Most importantly, people want to know what they can do to protect themselves and their loved ones. Yet the unexpected and chaotic nature of emergencies often makes it difficult to answer the public and the media's demand for information and reassurance.
Estimated time to complete: 2.5 hours
