Immediate Response Communication Plan

(Delete green GUIDANCE text when no longer needed.)

Situation:

GUIDANCE: (Step 1) Verify Situation

While it is not always possible to confirm all aspects of the situation or verify all sources, the facts must be
established and verified to protect the public and its confidence in the public health system.

What happened?
To whom did it happen?
When did it happen?
Where did it happen?
How did it happen?

Start description of problem/situation here.

Notifications:

GUIDANCE: (Step 2) Conduct Notifications

As soon as a situation is verified, essential leadership, authorities and partners must be notified.
Who must be notified (internally and externally)?
How should they be contacted and by whom?
When should they be notified?

(See Pre-Event, Tools, “Notification/Coordination Roster”)

Start text for notification plan here.

Notify Person/Group Phone No. Should be Contacted by Contact Made On

Crisis Level – Communication Response Needed:

Start text for crisis level description and communication response here.

GUIDANCE: (Step 3) Assess level of crisis.

The public’s perception of the level of a crisis and the actual threat to public health are sometimes not in
sync. Assess the actual public health risk and the level of communication response needed.

(See Event, Tools, “Event Assessment Wizard”)

Assignments for Team Leaders:

Start text for assignments here.
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GUIDANCE: (Step 4) Make Assignments.

 Alert the leadership of each communication team.
 Make clear assignments.
(See: Event, Checklist, Team/Function: Master Assignment List”

Spokesperson Preparation Required:

Start text for spokesperson here.

GUIDANCE:

 Who is the best person to create trust and project credibility on this issue?
 What must be done to help the spokesperson prepare (background, facts, review risk
communication principles, Q/A prep)?

(See: Pre-Event, Tools, “Crisis Communication Spokesperson Checklist”)

Target Audience(s)
Start text for describing target audience here.

GUIDANCE: (Step 5. Prepare Information.)

 How are different segments of the population affected or potentially affected?

 What audiences and subgroups must be addressed?

====Possible Audiences-Concerns====
 Public in the disaster, for whom action messages are intended-personal safety, family
safety, pet safety, stigmatization, property protection
 Public immediately outside the disaster, for whom action messages not intended-
personal safety, family safety, pet safety, interruption of normal life activities
 First responders-resources to accomplish response and recovery, personal safety, family
safety, pet safety
 Public health and medical professionals responders-personal safety, resources adequate
to respond
 Family members of victims and first responders-personal safety, safety of victims and
response workers
 Health care professionals outside response-vicarious rehearsal of treatment
recommendations, ability to respond to patients with appropriate information, access to
treatment supplies
 Civic leaders: local, state, and national-Leadership; response and recovery resources, and
quality of response and recovery planning and implementation; expressions of concern;
liability; international relations
 Congress-informing constituents, review of statutes and laws for adequacy and adjustment
needs, expressions of concern
 Trade and industry-business issues (protection of employees, loss of revenue, liability,
business interruption)
 National community-vicarious rehearsal, readiness efforts
 International neighbors-vicarious rehearsal, readiness efforts
 International community-vicarious rehearsal, exploration of readiness

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 Stakeholders and partners specific to the emergency-included in decision making and

access to information
 Media-personal safety, access to information and spokespersons, deadlines

Communication Objectives by Target Audience

Start text for communication objectives here.

GUIDANCE:

 What are the specific objectives for each audience and subgroup?
 What will help manage the public health threat?
 What do you need to accomplish?
 What do the audiences need to accomplish?

(See Pre-Event, Tools, “ERC Objective Development Worksheet”)

Audience:
Objective:

Audience:
Objective:

Audience:
Objective:

Audience:
Objective:

Key Concepts/Messages

GUIDANCE:

 Develop key messages for each audience and subgroup.

 Make sure the important emergency risk communication concepts are integrated into the
messages for all audiences.

(See Pre-Event, Tools, “ERC Objective Development Worksheet”)

Audience:

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Concept/
Message:

Audience:
Concept/
Message:

Audience:
Concept/
Message:

Communication Channels:
Start text for selection of communication channels here.

GUIDANCE:

 What delivery channel(s) must be used to reach each audience? Each subgroup?
 Who is responsible for delivery and in what timeframe?
Channel-Examples
 Face-to-face -health care professional to patient, or your organization's staff member to state
partner agency or individuals in the community
 Group delivery -small group meetings or public meetings
 Organizational-constituents of influential community organizations
 Mass media -radio, television, newspaper, or direct mail
 Community-employers, schools, malls, health groups, or local government agencies
 Combination-a combination of any of the channels listed above

(See Pre-Event, Tools, “Media List Planning Worksheet”)

(See Pre-Event, Tools, “ERC Objective Development Worksheet”)

Approvals Required:

GUIDANCE:

 Alert review and clearance teams.

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 Streamline processes so information release can be completed as quickly as possible.

 Provide subject matter experts to review content
 Facilitate clearance of printed materials
 Maintain multiple clearance channels
 Distinguish between previously cleared and new information for timely release

Audience Materials:
Start text for identifying audience materials, by target audience, here.

GUIDANCE:

 What materials are needed to deliver messages to target audiences? For example.
o Web pages
o Telephone contacts
o Briefings
o Small group meetings
o Public meetings
o Presentations
o Fact sheets
 What special requirements must be considered for materials for any subgroups (e.g. language,
format, special delivery channel)?
 What exists? What must be created?

Provisions for Releasing to Public:

For Immediate Release:

Projected Time of Next Release:

Process Being Used to Obtain Further Information:

GUIDANCE:

 Get cleared information out as quickly as possible

Provisions for Monitoring

Start text here.

GUIDANCE:

 Tracking, who is analyzing?

 Who is feeding information back to leadership?

(See: Pre-Event, Tools, “Public Information Emergency Response Call Description Form”)

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Provisions for Evaluation

Start text here.

GUIDANCE:

 What elements of your evaluation plan will require special attention following this event?

(See: Pre-Event, References, “Public Procedures for Evaluating Emergency Risk Communication
Activities”)

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