Public health campaigns and communities

Public health campaigns are used regularly to inform and educate the greater public with information from reliable sources. Many come from Government departments and aim to create awareness and improved public health.

2020 has been the year of increased messages of public health as globally we've been fighting a pandemic. One of the largest messages has been the prevention of spreading Covid19.

The interesting thing I see about health campaign's, is their ability to inform and throw information all over the internet but not properly engage with real humans. Alternatively, I see a lot of 'humans' engaging with all kinds of people groups on the internet, but sometimes stumbling their way through viable and correct information. 

Sometimes, from a cultural standpoint, the messages from public health campaigns get disregarded because of distrust and the past. In Canada's Indigenous communities, authorities have had to carefully change the message for Covid19 due to distrust among the 'First Nations' people from past experiences.

I suggest that many people will take credible public health information and combine it with the more authentic self-experiencing of health information, finding it personally more valuable and sometimes more easily accessible.

As Dave deBronkart (2011) found in his search for a cure from cancer, doing your own research and seeking out alternative treatment from the mainstream public information can be lifesaving.

Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave (2011

The key for public health campaigns, are for messages to be driven through more relevant social media platforms in creative and capturing ways.  Keeping the message strong so that users will seek out information for themselves through credible sources.

References:

CTV News 2020, Great deal of distrust': B.C.'s First Nations Health Authority adapting COVID-19 messaging, viewed 14 May 2020, <https://bc.ctvnews.ca/great-deal-of-distrust-b-c-s-first-nations-health-authority-adapting-covid-19-messaging-1.4865738>.

Ted 2011,  Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave, viewed 14 May 2020, <https://bit.ly/1BCzgtn>.

'Download free illustration of Wash your hands sanitary messages' [image], RawPixel Pinterest 2020, viewed 14 May 2020, <https://www.pinterest.com/pin/707557791444737620/>.
World Health Organization 2020, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic, viewed 14 May 2020, <https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019>.