About the Course

Health communication must translate technical evidence into messages and engagement approaches that people can understand, trust and act upon. Public-health programmes often operate amid uncertainty, behavioural barriers, misinformation and unequal access to credible information, making communication quality a central component of preparedness, prevention and response.

This course integrates health communication, risk perception, behavioural insight, community engagement, trust-building and infodemic management. It draws on contemporary risk communication and community engagement practice while remaining suitable for health authorities, hospitals, NGOs and development programmes beyond emergency outbreaks.

Participants will design a health communication intervention around a defined health issue. They will develop audience insights, behavioural objectives, message frameworks, trusted-messenger plans, community engagement mechanisms, misinformation responses and a monitoring framework for evaluating communication and behaviour outcomes.

Target Participants

Health communication professionals, ministry and county health staff, hospital communication teams, public health officers, NGO health programme personnel, behaviour-change specialists, community engagement staff, media officers and development partners supporting health programmes.

What You Will Learn

By the end of this course the participants will be able to:

• Analyse health communication challenges using risk, trust and behavioural perspectives.
• Identify audience beliefs, barriers, motivators and trusted information sources.
• Develop clear health messages that communicate risk and uncertainty responsibly.
• Design community engagement approaches that support participation and trust.
• Apply behavioural insights to communication interventions.
• Identify and respond to health misinformation and harmful rumours.
• Develop practical indicators for communication reach, comprehension, trust and behaviour.

Course Duration

• Classroom – 5 Days
• Online – 7 Days

Course Outline

Health Communication Foundations

• Role of communication in health outcomes
• Health literacy
• Trust and credibility
• Risk perception
• Ethics in health communication

Audience Behaviour Insight

• Behavioural drivers
• Beliefs and social norms
• Barriers and facilitators
• Trusted messengers
• Rapid audience insight methods

Health Risk Messaging

• Explaining risk clearly
• Absolute versus relative risk
• Communicating uncertainty
• Action-oriented health messages
• Avoiding fear-based distortion

Behaviour Change Design

• Defining target behaviours
• Behavioural objectives
• Prompts and cues
• Social influence
• Testing communication interventions

Community Engagement

• Community-centred approaches
• Local leader engagement
• Participatory message development
• Feedback mechanisms
• Community co-design

Trust Building

• Sources of health mistrust
• Transparency about uncertainty
• Responding to concerns respectfully
• Correcting errors
• Maintaining trust during policy changes

Infodemic Management

• Health misinformation patterns
• Rumour detection
• Verification workflow
• Response prioritization
• Prebunking and corrective communication

Health Media Practice

• Briefing health journalists
• Preparing technical experts
• Data and evidence communication
• Managing sensational questions
• Media updates during health events

Health Communication Measurement

• Reach and access measures
• Comprehension indicators
• Trust and confidence measures
• Behaviour-related indicators
• Health communication dashboards

Health Intervention Clinic

• Final audience analysis
• Message and messenger plan
• Community engagement design
• Misinformation response plan
• Intervention monitoring framework

Practical Outputs

• Health audience insight profile
• Behavioural objective framework
• Health message bank
• Trusted-messenger map
• Community engagement plan
• Misinformation response matrix
• Health communication dashboard

Training Approach

Participants use health scenarios, risk-message testing, behavioural insight exercises, community-engagement simulations and misinformation-response drills. The programme emphasizes practical communication decisions under uncertainty and requires participants to test messages for comprehension, trust and actionability.

Organizational Benefits

• Clearer and more actionable health information
• Improved community trust and engagement
• Better integration of behavioural insight into health programmes
• Stronger readiness for misinformation and rumours
• Improved preparation of health experts for public communication
• More inclusive communication across different population groups
• Better evidence on communication and behaviour outcomes

Certification

Participants who successfully complete this course will receive a Certificate of Course Completion from Devimpact Institute, recognizing the knowledge, practical skills and competencies developed through the programme.

Tailor-Made Course

This course can be customized and delivered as an in-house programme to address the specific policies, systems, sector context and capacity-development priorities of an organization. The course duration, modules, case studies and practical exercises may be adjusted following a training needs assessment.