Guidance on community engagement for public health events caused by communicable disease threats in the EU/EEA

Surveillance and monitoring
Cite:

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Guidance on community engagement for public health events caused by communicable disease threats in the EU/EEA, 2020. Stockholm: ECDC; 2020

This guidance on community engagement for public health emergency preparedness is intended for public health authorities in EU/EEA Member States. It is meant to provide step-by-step technical support to Member States who are initiating or professionalising their core community engagement capacity. The guidance is organised according to the three core stages of the preparedness cycle: anticipation, response, and recovery.

Executive summary

This document is a strategic guidance built on generic principles to be operationalised in specific country-system contexts, according to local, regional and/or national requirements and jurisdiction. 

ECDC conducted a project on synergies between communities affected by public health threats, and the institutions (both health and non-health-related, and at both the national and the local or regional levels) mandated to prepare for and respond to them as part of the process of optimising preparedness for serious cross-border public health threats.

The  guidance is based on sources of evidence which include a literature review, case studies and an expert consultation. All of the 14 options for action were derived empirically from the field work of the case studies, informed by the findings of the literature review and further refined during the expert consultation.