2015 Don Low Communications Fellowship Recipients
Congratulations to Atul Jain and Angela Newman!
Both Atul and Angela were selected as the 2015 Don Low Communications Fellowship recipients. Their commitment and dedication to public health embodies the spirit and values of Dr. Donald Low and the fellowship.
Atul Jain has worked as the Manager of Inspection Services at the Peterborough County-City Health Unit for the past three years. He is also the President of The Association of Supervisors of Public Health Inspectors of Ontario (ASPHIO). Having extensive public health knowledge and experience has benefitted his work in the Peterborough County-City Health Unit where he is frequently called upon to act as a media spokesperson.
Atul attended the Harvard School of Public Health's Applied Risk Communication for the 21st Century course in September 2015. Through the fellowship, Atul hopes to impart his knowledge of risk communication to other public health professionals.
Highlights from Atul's fellowship are detailed in his report below.
Atul's experience
In September 2015, I attended the Applied Risk Communications in the 21st Century course
at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston for my fellowship.
This course was recently restructured by the program
director, Dr. K. Viswanath, Professor of Health Communication in the Department
of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The attendees represented a diverse range of
organizations including Health Canada, the Alberta Ministry of Health, the U.S.
Defense Nuclear Safety Board, U.S. Navy Coast Guard, FDA, CDC, EPA, and ExxonMobil.
Some came from as far away as Uganda to attend this course. The Ugandans, who
had been on the front lines during the Ebola outbreak, sought to improve their
skills in risk communication.
Over two and a half days, we saw a series of informative
presentations on topics ranging from health communications to the challenges of
using risk communication in the media.
Of particular interest to me was the presentation by the State
Health Officer and Commissioner from the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health,
who recounted his experience as the lead public health official and risk
communicator during an incident where a chemical leaked into the drinking water
system. A Do Not Use order was issued
to prohibit use of water in most parts of the state for almost a month. During
this time, 3.5 million gallons of alternate drinking water were provided to the
residents. A post-crisis survey found that approximately 37.4% of the residents
did not follow the Do Not Use order.
This finding resulted in a change in risk communication practices for the West
Virginia Department of Health, and led to a legislative change in West Virginia.
Do Not Use orders are now issued by
the Department of Health, not by the drinking water operator.
The knowledge I acquired from this fellowship will assist me
in my day-to-day work in many ways. I have gained skills and learned techniques
to help me become more comfortable in dealing with the media (e.g., conventional
and social) and with the public. I hope my learnings will contribute to the
advancement of public health in Ontario in my role as a mentor and as a resource
to other public health professionals.
The course was educational, and also allowed me to engage
with professors, journalists and classmates from all over the world. Thank you
once again to the Sheela Basrur Centre for granting me this fellowship, and to
the Peterborough County-City Health Unit for their support.
To request copies of the course materials or to speak to
Atul about his fellowship experience, please contact SBC at SBC@oahpp.ca.
Angela Newman is a public health manager at the Grey Bruce Public Health Unit. She is responsible for a diverse portfolio that includes food safety, vector borne disease and tobacco prevention and enforcement. With over 12 years of experience in public health, Angela frequently engages with stakeholders, partners and various levels of government through a variety of Grey Bruce’s program areas. This engagement and communication includes messaging and strategies ranging from a well-received program accomplishment, informing the public of risk management plans, communications for health promotion, and advocacy.
Angela used her fellowship activity to attend the Ontario Hospital Association’s Essentials of Communications workshop in June 2016. Angela’s fellowship will contribute to advancing public health through the handling of risk management situations and working towards healthy public policy and behaviour changes.
Highlights from Angela's fellowship are detailed in her report below.
In June 2016, I attended the Ontario Hospital
Association’s two day course, Essentials
of Communication. This course, offered in partnership with the Canadian
Management Centre, emphasized that communication is key in all work situations.
In order to successfully have your ideas heard, communicate goals,
strategies and objectives, or share accomplishments and challenges, proper
communication is key to success.
This training covered a range of topics to help facilitate
communication skills related to managing difficult interactions, presenting
ideas, negotiating and persuading others.
Attendees came from all over Ontario and a variety of health care fields
such as hospitals, family health teams, public health, and laboratories. The
workshop provided opportunities to learn from each other as well as self-reflect
on our own experiences.
Through the course, we explored the idea of “getting
results”, which can take on different meanings, ranging from specific
deliverables to the daily process of working with others to complete a job. It
can also be perceived as trying to influence and persuade others when use of
formal authority falls short.
Traditionally, authority and positional power were once seen as the key
ways to get work done however, I learned that there are many ways in which you
can increase your effectiveness to get a job completed. The workshop taught me
how to become more effective by learning to influence others, get their support
and leverage my personal power.
There are several concepts that were introduced as a way
of developing personal effectiveness in working with others and through others’
efforts. The most striking of these concepts covered in the course were the
self-reflection exercises on emotional intelligence and personality behavioural
traits. I learned that success in the workplace and the ability to influence
others is dependent on the way you interact with others and manage
relationships. Understanding the difference in personality behavioural traits
helps to determine how best to communicate and interact with specific
individuals and groups.
I was able
to immediately apply the knowledge I had learned into practice. In my day-to-day
work as a public health professional, I communicate with a variety of audiences
using different communication mediums. The messages vary greatly and include the
management of difficult internal staff situations, informing the public of risk
management strategies and persuading the public and local politicians on health
changing behavior.
This was an excellent learning opportunity and I am deeply grateful to
the Sheela Basrur Centre and the Grey Bruce Health Unit for their support.