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Abstract #148296

Deborah S. Ballard-Reisch, PhD, Elliott School of Communication, Wichita State University, MS 31, Wichita, KS 67206, 316-978-6066, Deborah.Ballard-Reisch@wichita.edu, Teresa Sacks, MPH, Sanford Center for Aging, University of Nevada, Reno, MS 164, Reno, NV 89557, and Karen Ross, BS, MPH, Community Relations, Sierra Pacific Power Company, P.O. Box 10100, Reno, NV 89520.

With home fuel price increases of over 38% in Nevada in the winter of 2005/2006, a potential public health crisis was in the making for at-risk and fixed income citizens including seniors, individuals with disabilities, and low income families. As a method of getting information more effectively to consumers, the University of Nevada School of Public Health and Sierra Pacific Resources, the parent company of both Sierra Pacific Power and Nevada Power the two preeminent suppliers of natural gas and electricity to homes in Nevada, engaged in a unique academic-private industry partnership to conduct focus groups to identify the most effective way to get information to targeted at risk consumer groups. Concluding in July 2006, graduate and undergraduate students were trained in utilities management and regulation, public health communication, focus group methodology, data analysis, and report writing. The goal of this project was to assist Sierra Pacific Resources in identifying and implementing more effective strategies for communicating with consumers. The information desired from consumers was threefold: 1) To identify how targeted consumer groups prefered to receive information on energy and money saving programs 2) Consumers' familiarity with extant energy and money saving programs 3) Barriers that keep consumers from using extant programs This presentation reports on the results of these initiatives as well as the benefits of this academic-private industry partnership for MPH students, Sierra Pacific Resources and consumers.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify how academic-private industry partnerships can assist with communication strategy development with hard-to-reach populations.
• Articulate barriers to program utilitzation by hard-to-reach populations
• Strategize methods for overcoming barriers to program utilization with specific target populations

Keywords: Underserved Populations, Communication

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.