Effective Communication for Water-related Emergencies and Disease Outbreaks

OMB Control #: 0923-0047

Expiration Date: 01/31/2022

ATTACHMENT D: Water Emergency Risk Communication Messaging

Focus Group Discussion Guide

U. S. Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(Focus Group)

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Introduction

1. Read the Participant Information Sheet (Attachment C) and remind each participant to sign and send the consent form that was sent to them via email if he/she consents to participate in the focus group.

2. Welcome and thank you all for agreeing to participate in today’s focus group conducted by Powell Strategies. My name is [Facilitator’s Name] and I will be your facilitator today. I’d like to first share a few guidelines to help our focus group run smoothly.

   1. Please remember to mute your microphone if you are not talking to limit background noise.

   2. If you’d like to participate and haven’t yet had the opportunity to talk, please use the “raise hand” function, so that we can make sure your voice is heard.

   3. If you experience any technical issues during this session, please use the chat function to let our co-facilitator know.

3. The purpose of this focus group is to help us understand your opinions about health communication materials about water-related public health emergencies. We will use the information that you share with us to improve our communication materials during water-related public health emergencies. Water-related public health emergencies include events such as water contamination, disease outbreaks, natural disasters, chemical spills, harmful algal toxins, routine water outages.

4. We would like to hear your honest opinions about the topics we discuss. There are no right or wrong answers to any of the questions, and your thoughts and opinions are greatly valued and appreciated. We encourage you to speak openly and honestly about your opinions and experiences. You can choose not to respond to a question at any time. Your participation in this project is voluntary, and you can leave at any time.

5. We will be recording the screen for today’s meeting, including recording the audio for this session, and taking notes. The recordings and notes will help us summarize today’s discussion. None of the comments you make during today’s discussion will be linked with your name in any way, and all information from this discussion will be summarized anonymously.

6. As you know, we are planning for the interview to take 60-90 minutes. Do you have any questions before we get started? OK, let’s get started.

Warm-up:

Everyone joining us today has lived through a water-related emergency. We know that water-related emergencies have a serious impact on people’s lives and can cause many emotions, including fear and anxiety. But we also know that good health communications can minimize strong emotions. To get us warmed up today, we would like to go around and ask everyone to share one word about how they felt when they experienced a water-related emergency.

Section I:

I’d like to start off our discussion by talking about your experiences with communication and communication preferences when a water-emergency occurs. As a reminder, types of water emergencies include contamination of public drinking water, natural disasters such as hurricanes or floods, chemical spills, and routine water outages.

1. During a water emergency, who do you trust most for accurate information?

   1. Examples: family and friends, local news, national news, federal government, state or local government, local organizations, churches, celebrities, etc.

   2. Why?

   3. Do you use difference sources of information for different purposes?

2. How do you prefer to receive communications about a water emergency?

1. E.g., in person, video, news media, social media, memes, shareable content, websites, phone apps, games, pamphlets, posters, flyers, Facebook posts, TV ads, billboards

2. Why?

3. Multiple formats?

3. What information would you want to know during a water-related emergency? What type of messaging would you want to receive from health communication materials during a water emergency?

   1. Why?

4. During a water related emergency how often would you want to receive health information or communication?

1. Why?

1. Would this depend on the source of the information?

2. Would this depend on the type of information that is being shared?

3. Would this depend on the format of the information (e.g., online versus other formats)?

Section II. Testing Message #1 [Make Water Safe in an Emergency Webpage]

For this next part of the discussion we are going to ask your opinions about different health communication materials that have been used in the past for water related emergencies. To get the conversation started, I am sharing the first message on my screen now [the facilitator or co-facilitator may use the share-screen function to display the message].

5. What do you think is the main idea that this webpage is trying to get across?

6. Is this information useful to you? Why?

7. How well does this webpage help you understand what you need to do in a water-related emergency?

8. How could this webpage be improved?

1. Plain language?

2. Comprehension?

3. Visuals?

Section III. Testing Message #2 [Cleaning and Sanitizing with Bleach After an Emergency Webpage]

I am now going to share the second message on my screen [the facilitator or co-facilitator may use the share-screen function to display the message].

9. What do you think is the main idea that this webpage is trying to get across?

10. Is this information useful to you? Why?

11. How well does this webpage help you understand what you need to do in a water-related emergency?

12. How could this webpage be improved?

    1. Language?

    2. Comprehension?

    3. Visuals?

Section IV. Testing Message #3 [Boil Water Fact Sheet]

We have looked at two types of posters so far. Now let’s look at a social media post [the facilitator or co-facilitator may use the share-screen function to display the message].

13. What do you think is the main idea that this poster is trying to get across?

14. Is this information useful to you? Why?

15. How well does this webpage help you understand what you need to do in a water-related emergency?

16. How could this poster be improved?

    1. Plain language?

    2. Comprehension?

    3. Visuals?

Section V: Close Out

We have talked about your experience with water-related emergencies and your health communications preferences. Is there anything that you want to add about your experiences with water-related emergencies, or recommendations related to how best to reach people with health information during these emergencies?

1. If not, we want to thank you again for taking the time to speak with us.

2. I know thinking about this subject may have raised some questions. I’d like to provide you with some information from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention. You can visit the Water-Related Emergencies website at: https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency. If you have a specific question, you can email the CDC at [email protected] or call 1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636).