LI Course
CE Hours: 6 contact hours

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this Institute is to give leaders the tools to navigate the harsh realities of speaking to the public, media, partners and stakeholders during an intense public-safety emergency, including terrorism. In a crisis, the right message at the right time is a “resource multiplier”—it helps response officials get their job done. Many of the predictable harmful individual and community behaviors can be mitigated with effective crisis and emergency risk communication; or an organization can compound its problems during an emergency if it has neglected sound crisis and emergency risk communication planning. Participants should expect to gain the following understanding:

The Psychology of Communicating in a Crisis

• 5 communication failures that kill operational success
• 5 communication steps that boost operational success
• How to reduce public fear and anxiety, and come to terms with “panic”
• Why people need things to do
• 5 key elements to build and maintain public trust in a crisis

Your Role as a Spokesperson

• New research on the public’s perception of government
• Applying the STARCC principle in your communication
• Questions the public and media always ask first
• 5 mistakes that destroy stakeholder cooperation
• How to deal with angry people

Working with Media during a Crisis

• Your interview rights with the media
• Countering media interview techniques that can hurt you
• 2 things that guarantee your press conference will fail
• 3 things to say early in the crisis when the media are beating on your door

This course was developed to 1. Train public health leaders and communication professionals effectively prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. 2. Provide a "Train-the-Trainer" experience to provide communicators the skills needed to train other public health professionals how to systematically plan, develop, implement, and evaluate crisis and emergency risk communication activities. 3. Introduce crisis and emergency risk training curricula and tools developed by the CDC Office of Communication to public health officials The training draws from lessons learned during public health emergencies, and incorporates best practices from the fields of risk and crisis communication. With this training, CDC has moved forward in meeting the needs of partners and stakeholders in preparing for, responding to and recovering from public health emergencies.

Session Objectives: Understand the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) integrative model and how it contributes to overall emergency operational planning and response Recognize the 6 core CERC principles and their inherent strengths in relationship to successful emergency response Consider emergency situations and critically analyze and then select appropriate CERC tools and strategies for the situation

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)