(Tiper Stock Exchange) – The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted in several countriesincluding Italy, the inadequacy of institutional communication, which in many circumstances has not managed the health emergency effectively: this is what emerges from the study prepared by The Bridge Foundation and presented during the workshop “Communication of health emergencies: which key elements?” organized as part of the WCPH, the World Congress on Public Health, now in its 17th edition, underway in Rome.
In 2005, the WHO elaborated general recommendations to be included in national pandemic plans and some countries were able to promote useful information actions, others were not. “Unfortunately – he highlighted Rosaria Iardino, President of The Bridge Foundation – ineffective communication feeds collective fears and uncontrolled reactions in the population and in the economic system, while if the messages are clear and coordinated, based on the collective perception of risk, they can influence the way citizens respond to adverse events and support the exit from the emergency. In Italy, in the first phase of the pandemic, the Government faced the increase in infections with an inaccurate communication to citizens with respect to what was happening. Uncertainty should not be denied, because it risks disorienting and generating distrust”.
“During the first phase of the pandemic there was frequent use of press conferences by the Institutions to inform citizens – said Giovanni Rezza, General Directorate of Health Prevention, Ministry of Health, in a video message sent to the workshop, coordinated by The Bridge Foundation – and news was disseminated on the measures adopted, on deaths and infections , with very popular daily bulletins, which in the long run could have generated a certain state of anxiety in people. Then institutional communication rightly shifted to vaccination campaigns. A certain confusion was then fueled by the continued use of talk shows, even by the statements of experts and pseudo-experts, generically defined as “virologists”, who turned into popular TV stars. All of this – continued Rezza – has helped to create a non-univocal and sometimes contradictory communication, which has often overwhelmed the messages conveyed by the institutions. Furthermore, there were critical issues in the messages conveyed in the simplistic narratives used to defend vaccination obligations and Green Passes, especially in the Omicron era, not highlighting their public health significance in terms of risk-benefit ratio. In the end, opinions have sometimes prevailed over scientific evidence. In the future, the hope is that public communication in times of crisis can be improved and structured adequately even within pandemic plans, taking into account the issues related to the need to communicate uncertainty”.
A fundamental aspect of crisis communication is its centralization. Indeed, it is impossible to transmit coherent messages to all stakeholders at the same time without centralized management. In Italy, the choice made was the opposite: the political management of the pandemic was characterized by the decentralization of the chain of command to the Presidents of the 21 Regions and by the outsourcing of decisions, with the constant involvement of academics, scientists and managers. Collegiality was lacking, there was no control room responsible for inter-ministerial coordination.
During the workshop, coordinated by Guido Legnante, associate professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Pavia, the need to deal with health emergencies with the use of coherent communication emerged, essential for maintaining trust in the population. “In our country – he observed Clare Crepaldi, senior researcher at the Study Center of The Bridge Foundation, who analyzed the communication models used in various European and non-European countries – the sudden outbreak of the crisis initially led to the involvement of technicians already known or present in the Ministries, often without the specific skills in communication in a crisis situation. The first data provided by these expert groups have fueled wrong decisions and confusing and contradictory indications for the population. Many countries have involved technical committees to support choices, but this has led to often confusing messages, which have hindered efforts to combat the pandemic”.
For Ferruccio Di Paolo, NATO civilian expert for crisis communication and professor of Sociology of cultural and communicative processes: “In the event of a health crisis, effective, competent, correct and credible communication is essential to reduce uncertainty, provide effective guidelines and allow the public to construct a narrative of events such as to mitigate the most harmful and disruptive effects of the crisis. Indeed, a crisis is an event that can potentially compromise the operational capacity and survival of an organization. In addition to debunking false information, one must also engage in the promotion of socially valid behaviors if the effects of harmful beliefs and attitudes are to be mitigated. To be able to do all this requires constant peacetime preparation.
The research of The Bridge then focused attention on two other elements: the communication channels (institutional media, outlets and social media), highlighting the low percentage of Italian users (19%) on institutional ones compared to other European countries; communication pollution, with the phenomenon of the infodemic, which has spread disinformation and fake news, fueling a growing psychic and psychiatric discomfort in people.
The presence of The Bridge at the World Congress on Public Health – concludes the note. it was also the occasion to present two projects, one on schizophrenia – created with the non-conditioning contribution of Angelini Pharma – with the Patient Journey guide, and one on the school medicine service in Italy.
There schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder, chronic in up to 60% of cases, which worsens quality of life and psychosocial functioning. “We have built a two-year project to design a path for patients affected by schizophrenia, which includes assistance and management, with the aim of achieving recovery for these patients” explained Iardino, while on the school front “we have started a study to develop a new school medical service model, focused on health promotion. The school medicine service was introduced in Italy in 1978. The 2020-25 National Prevention Plan considers it a fundamental area for the promotion and protection of health” he concluded.