Communication Strategies According to Context

In the next video, you will learn about some communication strategies tailored for specific contexts. Before watching the lecture, please take some time to think about what you might already know of how to address these settings.

Communication Strategies Exercise

Review the settings described below – choose one of the three settings described. Given the challenges described for this setting, what do you think are some possible communication strategies?

Key Challenges in Endemic Settings

An endemic setting is one where polio transmission has never been interrupted or where initial responses to an outbreak have failed to interrupt transmission within six months of activities.

• Fatigue and growing mistrust due to prolonged engagement and repeated campaigns
• Large portions of unimmunized populations moving intra- and inter-country sustaining transmission
• Traditional or cultural views biasing caregivers against vaccines and promoting general apathy towards vaccination efforts
• Regional insecurity and instability result in competing priorities for communities as well as implementers
• Threat of vaccine-derived poliovirus with enough unvaccinated children

Key Challenges in Outbreak Settings

An outbreak setting can be defined as one where one or more cases of polio occur in an area that has been polio-free for at least six months.

• Lack of awareness of the recent outbreak among caregivers
• Lack of motivation among caregivers in the face of rumours and resistance from influencers
• Leaders with a political agenda leveraging the polio outbreak to meet their own goals
• Hiring poorly trained, unpaid or underpaid, and unmotivated health workers and mobilizers under pressure of the outbreak reduce access and acceptance rates

Key Challenges in Polio-Free Settings

A polio-free setting is where an outbreak has closed, or after an endemic country has been declared polio-free, a country (or in some cases, an area within a country) has entered the Maintenance Scenario.

• Passive or active non-compliance due to fatigue and complacency
• Delay or shortage in service delivery due to perceptions that polio vaccination is no longer critical
• Community members leveraging the success of polio to demand other health services

Record your thoughts for your own notes.