Leadership Forum
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Wrapping Up
“I want to take a few moments to bring this to some sort of natural closure, but also want youto know it does not end today. I am a pediatrician, but I am also a student. I have learned a lot just like you, traveling with the Secretary to 50 states and local communities, on the [Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog]. . . and I learn something new every day about pandemic preparedness. We have many communities with different needs and perspectives. You all, like me, watched Katrina unfold, and it shot so many of us into awareness. There are many lessons we are still learning – it’s not over for many who still live [in New Orleans]. [Preparedness] is not the same for everyone. You have to tailor your message to the audience. I challenge you to take doday’s discussion and engage others in similar dialogue. I hope you picked up on unique perpectives that you didn’t quite know before you came here today, and take those back to the communities you lead, and help this dialogue spread – not just at this level of government – but at every level of government and communities. We recognize that it doesn’t matter what we say if no one is listening. The true test will be, when the bell rings, how many peope have prepared ahead of time. It will be too late if, when the bell rings, we stand up and try to lead a nation that is unprepared.” As a noteworthy end to the Pandemic Flu Leadership Forum, Dr. Agwunobi invited others to make closing remarks. (“My handlers are shaking their heads and telling me not to do this – but I’m gonna do it!”) He encouraged Dr. Greg Dworkin of Flu Wiki to share his thoughts. The two have recently become acquainted as contributors on the HHS blog. – our blog community will appreciate this - Dr. Dworkin: One of the things we’ve learned today, over the past three weeks, and will continue to learn, is that there are a lot of potential recruits for this effort. . . A lot of people who are already engaged and feel strongly about this want to help.” Dr. Agwunobi: I didn’t realize until I became an avid reader of the HHS blog that there is an army of people who are already preparing and want to help further this goal of preparedness. (I also learned you have to be completely open and honest and forthcoming in that world or they won’t treat you very nicely!)
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Creating a Non-Event
– How do we mobilize members of our sector to get involved? The groups reported out from the breakout sessions. There were two health care groups (most highly-represented sector) and one community, one employer and one faith-based group. The first group, represented by Dr. Trish Perl from Johns Hopkins, focused on how health care professionals could get a message out to the public. The participants in the group included people from health boards, care givers, insurers and more. They question whether or not they are good at communicating, but think they can align with others to get the message out. They think that the messages need to be targeted: a nurse needs to hear a different message from a different source than a pharmacist, for example. There was a general consensus that the message needs to be clear about what they can do. They need to use multiple media, including peer to peer/word of mouth communications. The challenges to success were easy for the group to come by. Many people do not think this is a crisis: it’s vague and it’s out there. It’s not perceived as something that’s pressing. People’s minds are already cluttered and it’s not a priority. For example, cholesterol levels come to mind more quickly. Speaking bluntly, the group acknowledged that, if you’re not getting scored or graded on it, it may not happen. And it’s not a simple message. But, optimistically, there are opportunities. If this message could be successfully delivered, it could be a template for future responses, a lesson learned. The second opportunity is to communicate that this is for the common good, even though it’s focused on the individual. The second health group managed to whip together a power point in no time to present their results and they chose to report out on the challenges and opportunities. It needs to be made relevant to them. There are many things that are severe and frequent. How can this be relevant to physicians so that they can make it relevant to their patients? Will they lose credibility by talking about it? They need to know the specific message and they, in fact, need to be part of developing the message. This is a long-term process. What are some of the opportunities? Tie the pandemic influenza to seasonal flu (as Dr. Bocchini suggested earlier), using discussion of flu to encourage preparedness. It would be good to make the message easy to use. “What should I say? How should I say it? How can I deliver it?” The faith-based group was represented by Dr. Muneer Fareed, the Secretary General of the Islamic Society of North America. He talked about “assets and challenges”. “The asset we have is that they can become the ‘honest brokers’ between the public and political and government officials. We can provide better communications with families.” But there are always challenges. “Faith-based groups do not have equal means and equal access to resources. The challenge is to move those resources from those who have more to those who have less. Church-based groups are best positioned to do that.” He concluded by talking about the need for faith-based groups to also assess their existing rituals (sharing a chalice, a pilgrimages to high-risk areas of the world, etc.) as they might need to be adjusted in the case of an epidemic. Their motto? “Like minded citizens can be gathered in coalition for a common cause.” The employer group spoke next, with Lawrence Pelham from Dupont representing the group. His take away? Big companies are further ahead than smaller companies. They know what needs to be done and are on the road toward making things happen. Smaller companies, however, have a much bigger challenge. They have more constrained resources and more limited skill sets among their employees. The group also discussed that there are liability issues around even talking about the issue. But the biggest challenge that the group thinks they will face is, “How do you get the employees’ attention in a way that is relevant to them? How do you convince them that a pandemic is important? How do you put in HR policies that will encourage the right behavior when, in fact, some policies encourage you to come to work when you are sick?” Finally, Pelham wrapped up by making it clear: It has to be about life or death or it has to be about money if you are going to convince senior management to take action. The community group wrapped up the presentations, with the report out coming from Linda Daily from the United Way. “Yes, we would like to be engaged in this army to communicate the importance of pandemic preparedness. But there are constraints of time and resources and conflicting interests.” The group determined that there needs to be more than the tool kits. They need to build their skills in order to be messengers. They need training. And, while they recognize that information is important, changing attitudes is more important. “HHS should be clear about what they are asking us to do and they should work in coordination with their public health officials.” The group want this process to be kept apolitical or nonpartisan. All who can prepare should prepare so that providers can focus on the most vulnerable. Among the most vulnerable, we need to be culturally sensitive. Finally, we need to think about Y2K. Many people saw that as a non-event. But maybe it was because of all of the preparations – many invisible to the public. Let’s create another “non-event.”
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Listening in on the BreakoutsHere’s a sample of some of the comments we’re hearing from leaders in today’s breakout sessions: Faith-based:
Health Care:
Business:
Community:
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Dr. Shapiro, Today’s Moderator
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