The document discusses community awareness and communication, which are essential tools for community health and bringing about behavioral change. It outlines the objectives, approaches, contents, and principles of community awareness. Effective communication is defined as a process of exchanging ideas and information through various channels and feedback. The communication process, types of communication, barriers to communication, and WHO principles for effective communication are also examined.

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COMMUNITY AWARENESS AND COMMUNICATION
Introduction: (Ref: Community Based Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities –
S Pruthvish, Textbook of Community Medicine and Community Rehabilitation for
Physiotherapists – T Bhaskara Rao)
Preliminary steps in initiating CBR activities
✓ Identification of person with disability
✓ Assessing their needs
✓ Assessing and accessing local / external resources
✓ Training and education of community resource, disabled people and their
family members
✓ Creating awareness among community members
✓ Organizing disabled people, their family
Community awareness is an essential tool of community health to bring about the
behavioral change in the people and the key element in the community awareness
is the communication.
Behavioral Change Model
UNAWARE
AWARE
CONCERNED
KNOWLEDGEABLE AND SKILLED
MOTIVATED TO CHANGE
READY TO CHANGE
TRIAL CHANGE OF BEHAVIOR
ADOPTION OF NEW BEHAVIOR

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Community Awareness: (Ref: Essentials of Community Based Rehabilitation –
Satya Bhushan Nagar, Preventive and Social Medicine – K Park)
A) Objectives of Community Awareness
✓ Informing the people: Disseminating scientific knowledge (Health
Promotion and Disease Prevention)
✓ Motivating the people: Alteration of behavior in health practices
which are detrimental to health
✓ Guiding to action: Encouraging people to judiciously use health
services
B) Approaches of Community Awareness
✓ Regulatory Approach: Legal approach to protect public health –
enforcement of laws and regulations
✓ Service Approach: Provides facility needed by the community
✓ Educational Approach: Involves communication and decision making
C) Contents of Community Awareness
✓ Human biology
✓ Nutrition
✓ Hygiene – Personal and Environmental
✓ Family health
✓ Control of CDs and NCDs
✓ Mental Health
✓ Preventive measures
✓ Use of health services
D) Principle of Community Awareness
✓ Interest: Find out real felt needs and educate – to develop interest
✓ Participation: Active learning > Passive learning
✓ Known to unknown: Start from existing known knowledge and then
proceed to new insights
✓ Comprehension: Important to know level of understanding, literacy
and education of the people – improve comprehensibility
✓ Reinforcement: repetition of the same message periodically but in
different ways for better understanding
✓ Motivation: Awaking the fundamental desire to learn – contagious –
give incentives
✓ Learning by doing: Action process

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✓ Good human relations: Build good human relationship – successful
health education
✓ Feedback – Can modify elements of systems (message/channel) in the
light of feedback from audience
✓ Setting an example – Preach what you teach
✓ Leaders: Agents of change – Understands needs and demands of
community – honest and impartial – requisite skills and knowledge for
cooperation and coordination of various official and non-official
organizations
Communication: (Ref: Essentials of Community Based Rehabilitation – Satya
Bhushan Nagar, Textbook of Community Medicine – Dr. AP Kulkarni et.al,
Preventive and Social Medicine – K Park, Textbook of community medicine and
community rehabilitation for physiotherapists – T Bhaskara Rao)
Definition: Communication can be regarded as a process of exchanging or
shaping ideas, feelings and information.
Communication works at 3 levels
✓ Cognitive: Increasing knowledge
✓ Affective: Changing existing patterns of behavior and attitude
✓ Psychomotor: Acquiring new skills
The Communication Process: It is a complex process and has the following main
components:
✓ Sender/ Communicator: Source
must know objectives – clearly defined, audience – interest and felt
needs, message, channels, professional abilities and limitations
✓ Receiver / Communicatee: Audience
single or group / controlled – homogenous (common interests) or
uncontrolled – heterogenous (motives or curiosity)
✓ Message: Content
should be – in line with objectives, meaningful, based on felt needs, clear
and understandable, specific and accurate, timely and adequate,
interesting, culturally and socially appropriate

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✓ Channel(s): Medium
interpersonal communication – face to face, mass media – TV, radio,
printed media etc., traditional media – drama, puppetry, folk dance,
burrakatha, harikatha, nautanki etc.
✓ Feedback: Effect
reverse flow – information/remarks - from audience to the sender
The Communication Process
Steps Involved in Communication of Message
Types of Communication:
✓ One – way Communication: Didactic method – Message flows from
communicator to the audience (unidirectional)
✓ Two – way Communication: Socratic method – Both audience and
communicator take part (two – way method)
✓ Verbal Communication: word of mouth
SENDER MESSAGE CHANNEL RECEIVER
IDEATION ENCODING TRANSMISSION RECEIVING DECODING ACTION
TYPES
ONE -WAY TWO - WAY VERBAL
NON -
VERBAL
FORMAL INFORMAL VISUAL
TELE &
INTERNET
AWARENESS
INTEREST
EVALUATION
ADOPTION (BEHAVIOR
CHANGE)
FEEDBACK

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✓ Non – Verbal Communication: Includes body movements, postures,
gestures, facial expression and even silence.
✓ Formal Communication: Follows lines of authority
✓ Informal Communication: Grape-vine communication
✓ Visual Communication: Comprises of charts, graphs, pictograms, tables,
maps and posters
✓ Telecommunication and Internet: It is done using electromagnetic
instruments over distance e.g.: Radio, TV and internet (mass
communication; Telephone and telegraph (point-to-point
telecommunication system)
Barriers of Communication: Obstacles in communication are classified as
✓ Physiological: Difficulties in hearing, expression
✓ Psychological: Emotional disturbances, neurosis, levels of intelligence,
language or comprehension difficulties
✓ Environmental: noise, overcrowding, invisibility
✓ Cultural: illiteracy, level of knowledge, customs, beliefs, religion,
attitude, economic or social class differences etc.
WHO Strategic Communications Framework for Effective Communications

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WHO Principles for Effective Communications:
✓ Accessible
▪ Planning questions to ensure communications are accessible
▪ Identify effective channels
▪ Make information available online
▪ Ensure PWD can find and use information they needed
✓ Actionable
▪ Planning questions to ensure communications are actionable
▪ Move audience towards action – the communications continuum
▪ Design a behavior change campaign
▪ Encourage action during a healthy emergency
✓ Credible and trusted
▪ Planning questions to ensure communications are trusted
▪ Ensure technical accuracy
▪ Be transparent
▪ Coordinate with partners
▪ Speak as “One WHO”
▪ Using the WHO brand for maximum impact
✓ Relevant
▪ Planning questions to ensure communications are relevant
▪ Know the audience
▪ Listen to the audience
▪ Tailor the message
▪ Motivate the audience
✓ Timely
▪ Planning questions to ensure communications are timely
▪ Communicate what WHO knows early
▪ Communicate at the right time
▪ Build the conversation
✓ Understandable
▪ Planning questions to ensure communications are understandable
▪ Use plain language
▪ Tell real stories
▪ Make it visual
▪ Use familiar language

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References:
❖ Community Based Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities – S Pruthvish
❖ Textbook of Community Medicine and Community Rehabilitation for
Physiotherapists – T Bhaskara Rao
❖ Essentials of Community Based Rehabilitation – Satya Bhushan Nagar
❖ Preventive and Social Medicine – K Park
❖ Textbook of Community Medicine – Dr. AP Kulkarni et.al
❖ WHO Strategic Communications Framework for Effective Communications