New Toolkit Provides Research-Based Tips to Build Understanding of Public Health’s Role and Value

Resources address low understanding, trust, and confidence amid polarization and distrust

Bethesda, Maryland, Feb. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The de Beaumont Foundation today released Communicating about Public Health: A Toolkit for Public Health Professionals, a collection of research-based messaging and practical guidance to build understanding about what public health is, what health departments do, and how that work benefits people’s lives.

“By communicating about specific health topics in a way that’s easy for people to understand and act on, public health professionals can make their communities healthier and safer,” said de Beaumont president and CEO Brian C. Castrucci, DrPH. “But public health organizations often struggle to convey the overarching goals and core concepts of their work, and that can lead to confusion and distrust, especially in an environment with politically driven narratives, misinformation, and a general distrust of government.”

Based on surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews with over 1,600 U.S. adults, de Beaumont and its research partner CommunicateHealth identified five core concepts about the purpose and value of public health that are generally not understood:

Public health works at the community level, while health care works at the individual level.

Public health focuses on preventing people from getting sick or hurt.

Public health workers serve their local communities.

Public health workers play a variety of professional roles – and many work behind the scenes.
Public health benefits everyone.

The toolkit includes messaging to address each of these knowledge gaps, research-tested examples to make each core concept more tangible, and practical guidance for public health workers to share information across a variety of real-world situations.

For more information, view the toolkit at https://debeaumont.org/resources/communicating-about-public-health-toolkit/.

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About the de Beaumont Foundation

The de Beaumont Foundation creates and invests in bold solutions that improve the health of communities across the country. Its mission is to advance policy, build partnerships, and strengthen public health to create communities where everyone can achieve their best possible health. For more information, visit www.debeaumont.org.

Attachments

Nalini Padmanabhan
de Beaumont Foundation
301-802-6783
media@debeaumont.org

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