5-Minute MCH: Module 5.3

1. How to Advance Yourself as an MCH Leader (Self-Reflection Strategy). Identify your personal strengths and areas of growth by taking 5 minutes to register/log-in to the MCH Navigator's Self-Assessment and answer questions related to Competency 5: Communication.
2. How to Find and Use Tools to Help You (Information Strategy). The National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health's (NCEMCH) has compiled a resource brief highlighting the variety of approaches and innovations used to advance communication in maternal and child health. Contents include a selection of websites, materials from the MCH Knowledge Base, and trainings from the MCH Navigator.
3. How to Activate Your Organization (Organizational Strategy). Does your organization have an up-to-date plan for communicating in the event of a public health emergency? Learn how a health agency, a health professions association, and a school of public health collaborated to create a communications toolkit for public health emergencies that impact children. Resources such as checklists, practice templates and guidelines, and flowcharts for pediatric practices, schools, and child care programs are included.
4. How to Incorporate Partners (Systems Strategy). Many individuals do not receive the services they need or qualify for due to systemic deficits in communication and information systems. This strategic plan outlines strategies to advance a national communications infrastructure that supports health, safety, and care delivery. The plan's success will be measured by monitoring a set of proxy indicators including the percent of individuals who experienced one or more gaps in health information when seeking care. Learn more about who has committed to implementing specific strategies and how the plan's strategies connect to other strategic initiatives. Do you recognize opportunities for partnership and alignment?
5. How to Engage Your Communities. Many federal, state, and local agencies; national and state organizations and associations; and foundations are integrating social media into their communication efforts – from developing governance to determine which channels best meet their objectives; to creating a social media strategy; to providing access to health information when, where, and how users want it. A variety of tools can be used to reinforce and personalize messages, reach new audiences, and build a communication infrastructure based on open information exchange. In an effort to provide real-time access to emerging public health issues, the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs and the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health partnered to aggregate Social Media in the States. Follow the multi-state Twitter feed, or use the map to learn about other state social media outlets. Join the conversation!
   

If you experience any technical difficulties with any page in the 5-Minute MCH Program, please email us.

Click for Discussion Form

If you can't see/access the form above, please email comments to [email protected].

Tell us how you will use what you have learned:

• "The resource brief you shared is perfect and I'm planning on disseminating to my staff and colleagues; thank you."
• "I had forgotten about the social media in the states feature. I used to use it all the time, so this was a good reminder for me to check what is going on in other state health departments."
• "In public health, communication really is the backbone of everything that we do. It's how we work with other professionals to arrange for services, and it's how health care professionals eventually engage patients around those services. Very important to pause and think about it."