THE TRAINING ALSO FOCUSED ON STRENGTHENING THE CAPACITY OF PARTICIPANTS TO HELP THEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT INTERVENTIONS AIMED AT BEHAVIOR CHANGE.
UNICEF for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean recently facilitated a two-day Social and Behavior Change Communication Training with representatives from the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs and other key stakeholders with the aim of developing the skills and knowledge of participants on applying social and behaviour change communication approaches when responding to public health and other emergencies. The training also focused on strengthening the capacity of participants to help them design and implement interventions aimed at behavior change.
Social and Behavior Change Communication Specialist for UNICEF Dr. Lisa McClean Trotman expressed hope that participants will gain a better understanding of the social and behaviour change principles and practices which can be applied to their programmes in the communities. “We really want to emphasize people-centered approaches meaning that when you are actually designing interventions that you understand the population you dealing with; if you involve and if you include them. One of the sessions, I will be doing is looking at involving participants. Involving them means not just thinking about them generally, but when you involve people, do you think inclusion, do you think of people with disabilities, do you think the elderly, do you think children? Everybody has different perspectives and different influences so how do you manage those things to ensure that if you are trying to reach people, that they are part of the process and they themselves help you to determine what is best way to help change their behaviors.”
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belmar-George encouraged participants to embrace the training and to apply the knowledge acquired in their social and behavior changes programmes and activities. “Over the past 10 to 15 years, we have been managing outbreaks of Dengue Fever, Zika, Chikungunya, flu, COVID-19 and we have had to provide continuous health education and communication to the public to reduce the impact of those diseases within our communities. This training will definitely assist our team and the teams from the other ministries in ensuring that the information we provide is culturally acceptable and not just giving information but ensuring that it translates to the behaviour change that we want to see to reduce the impact of the disease.”
Health Educators, Public Health Nursing Supervisors, Nutritionist, Social Transformation Officers and Representatives from town and city councils, to name a few benefitted from the Social and Behaviour Change Communication training.