Communication Strategies

The communication skills that I apply in my everyday life are listening, sending clear messages and understanding. These three communication skills have been beneficial in conducting my communication and maintaining my good personal relationships with other people. Communication is considered as one of the most important activities of man. It is utilized in most of the vital transactions that man does. It is defined as the process of transmitting messages and information from one point to another to convey meaning, achieve understanding, and avoid conflict. Communication is important in various areas of life such as school, community, home and workplace.

    Listening is a communication that I apply in my life and has been beneficial in my personal relationships. The success of an effective communication therefore rests on the receiver who is at the listening end. Listening is part of communication and language arts. There are fights and miscommunications because nobody has the time to listen. This is a very important tool to avoid misconceptions and misunderstandings. Careful listening gives individual good and accurate information. Every individual should develop his or her listening skills.

I can consider myself as a good listener. I tend to always lend my ears to friends and families who would like to share things and experiences. Listening is important in the whole communication process and in maintaining our relationships wherein the two participants are constantly changing roles as listener and as speaker. In a relationship, the two people involved need to listen to one another in order to grow in the relationship and to know each other better.

My personal relationships flourished because of good communication involving effective listening. Listening is of vital importance in personal relationships like friendship and familial relationships for listening enables better understanding of the messages sent by the other person. Imagine if the two participant of a relationship just keep talking and no one listens, it will be chaotic and it does not meet the ends of the communication.
In my personal experience with my friends, listening is important to keep the friendship intact. There was a time when a friend of mine had a serious problem and he told us his problems. I and our other friends were just there to listen as he babbles over and over his problems. We just listen and absorb all his uttered words. We just talk about the problem, listen, offer solutions, had a good laugh afterwards. After the incident, he then felt relieved that he was able to get it all out. Through listening, we were able to help others by allotting some time to listen and lending an ear to friend. Listening is a sign of empathy to other people. It is a manifestation that we care to what the other people will say and we unconsciously send a message that the other person is important to us and is a part of our life.

There was a time wherein I work for sales. The world is full of goods and services that need to be marketed by people to possible clients and customers. There are different sales job, however, they perform common activities and functions. Sales involve selling of goods and services to customers. One of the important skills to a sales person is his or her ability to listen carefully and effectively to different types of persons. Although effective listening is vital to every profession, it is particularly significant to business transactions, especially selling.

Paying attention and listening is also a sign of respect toward others. Whenever we deal with a person and simultaneously talking to a colleague, attend phone calls and look at cell phones from time to time, we send an underlying or nonverbal message that the person we are speaking with is unimportant and is wasting our time. Moreover, when we listen carefully and actively, it sends a message that we make an effort to understand. Thus, the customer gets the feeling of being important as the sales person take the trouble of listening to his problems and situations. This will yield to the personal satisfaction of the customer.

Another important communication skill that I apply in my life is sending out clear messages. One important aspect in the communication process is the sending of messages. However, it is important that the messages that we send to other people is clear and understandable so that the other person will understand the message. The message that a communicator sends can be verbal and non-verbal and it is equally important that these are clear. Sending clear messages is essential in maintaining harmonious personal relationships in order to avoid conflict and misunderstanding.

One instance that sending clear messages applied in my personal relationship is when I was dating. Dating is the critical part of the relationship for this is the stage wherein the two persons are trying to get to know each other better. When we date, we need to send out clear messages to the other person so that the other person will know our intentions and what we want to happen after the dating stage. I dated and made it clear to my dates what I want in a relationship. This way, I do not offend people and do not make them hopeful if I do not like them.

An important skill that is applied in my life is understanding. Understanding is being able to assess and comprehend messages and situations. This particular communication skill is essential in my personal relationships for it enables me to do the right course of action and avoid conflict. This is best applied in my life, especially in my personal relationships.

I am very close to my siblings, I love to see them during the special occasions like thanksgiving and Christmas, and I always look forward to such occasions for me to catch up with them. This past thanksgiving, my siblings promised that we would spend it to our house with our parents and do the catching up in our personal lives. I expected that they will come and waited for them. However, during the last minute preparations for the occasion, one of them called and said that he was not able to make it for he is so busy and needs to attend to many things. I was disappointed however, I understand his situation. I know that there will be occasions that he will missed and there are always another time when we can catch up on each others life. The personal relationship between me and my siblings are stills intact.

In this paper, I have discussed and pointed out how communication is essential in maintaining a harmonious and productive relationship with other people. Communication is a vital process in our everyday lives. We spend most of our time communicating our thoughts and ideas to other people. Communication is an important aspect in our interaction and interpersonal communication with other people. There are three important communication skills that are applied in my life which are listening, sending out clear messages and understanding. These three communication skills are best applied in my life in conducting communication in order to maintain good personal relationships. Listening should not be taken for granted. It can provide important information in different settings. Listening proved to be an integral part of the whole communication process and our communication in our personal relationships, in order to avoid conflict and misunderstanding. Sending out clear messages is also an important aspect of the communication process and is important in maintaining harmonious relationships. This largely helps in avoiding misunderstanding and miscommunication. Lastly, understanding is an essential communication skill in assessing the messages and situations. This largely helps in maintaining personal relationships and avoiding conflict.

    The study is focused on the efficacy of health risk communication on the organizational level and its overall impact on the dissemination of relative information pertaining to Influenza A (H1N1). The importance of having a good and sound health risk communication is needed in order to decrease and lessen the incidence of casualties, alleviating the diseases effects on human productivity as well as providing timely treatment to affected individuals. Moreover, effective health communication can affect the overall health behaviors exhibited by affected people and helpful in widening the scope of awareness that creates a society that is more reactive particularly in treating and preventing communicable diseases such as Influenza A (H1N1). The effectiveness of health risk communication can be measured in terms of raising the level of awareness and the extent to which it can affect and influence the people. Modern technologies have now affected the efficiency of media and upgraded several means of informing the public. It is much faster compared to older technologies such that media innovation has created a wider scope of public information as well as updating the public with the latest advances in health sciences including health advisories. Effective health communication seeks to provide information and recommendations about health risks such as the efforts in informing the public about the health consequences on smoking or AIDS. This information must be adequately and efficiently disseminated across and must be understandable, accessible and logical to the public. Considering the varying opinions, social status and other individual characteristics that can affect information dissemination and perception must also be considered in having an effective health risk communication (Lundgren and McMakin, 2009).

    Public health management is one of the major concerns not just locally but treated as global matter as well. With constant mutations, occurring, new diseases are being produced with higher medical resistance and easier transmission to most types of social communication and interaction. In an editorial by Jay Bernhardt (2004), the demand of having an effective and wide communication system is essential in providing a highly developed public health management. Bernhardt discussed the bioterrorists attacks in 2001 and its impact to social health and preparedness. It was a failure though that anthrax poisoning was able to penetrate U.S. homes and other establishments. Thus, the need of strengthening the public health system can be optimized and achieved with a strong communication and public awareness with relevant and updated information. Mass communication and its relation to public health have developed for the past few years. With modern equipment and technological advances in both media communication and health and medicine, public health has become a vital instrument in improving social and national health as a whole. Public health communication has become an integral part in several medical fields such as epidemiology, risk assessment, microbiology, bacteriology and other specific fields that directly and indirectly create an effect to the overall health conditions of the people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognized the necessity of having an effective public health communication in order to improve American health conditions with the latest health researches, medical and technological advances as well as other innovations in health sciences that can offer greater and effective alternatives in contemporary diseases as well as strengthening the preventive measures initiated by the government. Public health communication must be considered as an art with its several techniques and strategies to inform influence and motivate citizens from the individual up to the organizational and institutional levels with significant exposure to daily varying health conditions and issues. Health should not just be treated in a single perspective but rather consider its overall state in terms of the social, political, environmental, and behavioral aspects with which Americans are exposed. The idea of treating public health in an ecological perspective is rather acceptable as it accepts and follows multilevel communication approaches and interventions such as customized messages for the lower base level, specific point messages at the group level, social marketing at the community level, media advocacy at the policy level and media campaigns at the population level (Bernhardt, 2004). With the multifaceted nature, the idea of ecological perspective in effect, altered orientation and social or audience-oriented and centered philosophy, public health communication has the greater chance of making important and relative contributions and developments in improving the health conditions in the country. The government has a major role in pursuing these innovations with the help of media and other related organizations. With these efforts realized, public health communication is believed to have developed itself as a discipline and field of study as much as it can help improving the lives and health of every American citizen with proper and timely information.
    Breakwell (2000) discussed and elaborated on the factors that affect risk communication as well as its impact if the overall system is compromised. Three major components work altogether in forming risk communication. The characteristics of the audience or the public that has to be informed, the source or location of the information or message and the content of such particular message should create a complex interaction to which risk communication is dependent. However, the communication approach must consider the type of people or audience to which it will be addressed. The factors that affects the audiences usually depends on some demographic factors such as their age, gender and ethnicity as well as the personal information, previous health experiences, and ideological orientations, beliefs and traditions. It varies from person to person such that public health communication should be treated with utmost generality and unbiased presentation. Moreover, the overall effect of health communication can be influenced by some cognitive biases such as unrealistic optimism as well as the lay mental models of the poisonous or hazardous substance (Breakwell, 2000). Considering food hazards, the vital dimensions of risk are controllability, novelty and naturalness. The source of information must be reliable and trustworthy in order for the risk or hazard message to be believable and effective. In order to create reliable messages and to build the trust needed, sources must be coming from experts and are significantly impartial, disinterested, and not creating any sensational news. To further strengthen its impact, health risk communications must have the necessary contents that have the capacity to generate and draw wide attention, highly comprehensible and can affect and modify public decision-making. It must be clearly stated in terms of its definitions, goals and objectives and can easily be understood with the ease of interpreting the details, which in some instances is seldom attained due to the shrouded nature of the risk message being relayed in terms of its scientific validity and interpretation. Risk messages should then be able to trigger and start public procedures and processes with a greater effect on amplification and attenuation, with their ramification rarely controllable (Breakwell, 2000).
    Risk communication is very essential in protecting public health such that it needs to be highly effective and accessible (Covello et al., 2001). Covello and colleagues (2001) that the intentional or even unintentional introduction of pathogens and other disease-causing organisms in any urban settings or some situations where most people are gathered creates severe considered it and serious challenges to the overall effectiveness of health risk communication. Health risk communication is a scientific approach in properly communicating and disseminating high valued information in risk concern instances or situations. This is attained by providing a set of principles and ideas together with proper tools and equipment to meet the challenges that were laid upon it. The presented a short overview of the effects of risk communication as well as its theoretical perspective including the specific primary risk communication patterns, models and approaches were presented. The effectiveness of risk communication was further assessed using the West Nile virus epidemic in New York City in years 1999 and 2000 as well as further evaluating its effectiveness on possible bioterrorist attacks. Their intention was to provide practical information regarding the possible ways on perceiving and assessing the risks accompanied with an epidemic and disease outbreak considering the best possible ways and means on treating, managing and controlling it as a whole event. As a result, the emerging illness and disorders as well as bioterrorism proved to exhibit uncommon health risk communication challenges. Despite these challenges, the possibility of developing an effective risk communication approach can be done in order to cope and adjust on such events. It would be serious and even disastrous to public health and security if the necessity of developing a stronger health risk communication will be neglected. With the help of the government as well as other public and private health organizations, the final version of risk communication must be created, planned and properly implemented with an accompanying efficient monitoring. It is important to start the creation, planning, preparation and implementation of these risk communication strategies as soon as possible.
    Glik (2007) reviewed and further elaborated on the risk communication available during public health emergencies. The paper created a wider perspective and definition regarding health risk communication and traced its beginnings on a number of applied fields in both science and technology. It also showed the processes and events to which these primary principles have made them included in the level of emergency preparedness, information dissemination and risk communication for public health. The paper reviewed four different researches and studies from different fields and has its literature be presented its crisis risk information in different approaches. The paper included environmental risk communication, disaster management, health promotion and communication, and media and communication studies (Glik, 2007). It was further reviewed and studied based on the present curricula and training materials and documents in relation to its updated information flexible enough to adjust and cope with the changing needs of emergency treatment and communication system. Emergencies are different with other health-related situations, as these should be dealt the utmost urgency with appropriate treatment and resolution to every situation. The overall paper review suggested a significant progress in terms of developing faster and more reliable ways to address the public regarding health risks and emergencies as well as incorporating and disseminating messages in crisis risk communication ideas and principles into practice and field of public health. It was further suggested that these developments were achieved with the manifestation of public health workers and medical practitioners with the skills and experiences they have gained, which therefore elevated the level of crisis risk communication as an important field of study. However, crisis risk communication still lack the in-depth analysis, assessment and evaluation needs in order to measure the effectiveness of case-specific crisis risk communication strategies and initiatives. The paper further defined crisis risk communication as the reliable, accurate and effective means of communication to a variety of audiences in emergencies and unusual situations (Glik, 2007). Moreover, risk communication was further identified as the exchange of information regarding the health risks acquired from environmental, industrial, agricultural means, which also includes the processes, policies, or products among individuals, groups, and institutions (Glik, 2007). The practice of crisis risk communication and its significance in with public health risk communication is further established in order to create an emergency responder upon merging the principles, practices and methods that are necessary. Crisis risk communication can greatly help the populace in adjusting and adopting policies and strategies to encounter natural and man-made disasters that can affect both the physical and mental being of each individual. Public health play major role in relaying medical, epidemiological, behavioral, and statistical information and turning it into comprehensible and accurate messages and concepts that the public can understand such that their decision-making can be affected by means of providing better options on dealing with catastrophes and disasters as well making them prepared to overcome the stress and hardships that these may bring upon them. An effective public health risk communication should be constantly be improved and developed in a way that it can cope with the threats of widespread outbreaks such as pandemic flu, industrial accidents, bioterrorist attacks, heavy and damaging tropical storms and other severe health threats. With the use of proper technology as well as the media, risk communication can be a useful field in widening the extent of awareness and level of public preparedness (Glik, 2007).
    Risk communication and its relevance to health care practice has been reviewed and discussed by Adil (2008). It was stated that considering the art and science of risk communication as essential in providing an effective risk management approach and strategy. It further examined the issues underlying the communications in dealing with public health risks as well as its major role in assisting health care professionals, practitioners and managers to provide the most suitable treatment and approach in the related field as well as providing several examples of situations pertaining to health risk communication. The paper explored the complexity, the multidisciplinary nature, multidimensional perspective of this continuously growing developing field of study. This new and highly dynamic discipline is must be more focused and oriented on protecting and safeguarding public health. For the past years, it has been difficult to separate and segregate several sub processes of health risk communication such risk communication itself from risk assessment and risk management due to their interdependent nature. These areas and disciplines are treated in different ways but must be convergent with one another, having a contribution to the success of each process. By doing so, health risk communication, in terms of traditional messages regarding health threats create a one way flow in motivating personal behavior by means of changing it among the medical practitioners and the government health officials. It was established that modern and considerably effective means of risk communication must be a two-way process due to its needed consideration and treatment at every stage of risk management. A proactive and systematic risk communication approach must be based on the understanding of the public perception and interpretation of risk beforehand. The paper further stated that risk communication as well as the overall process is facing significant challenges in terms of relaying the information to the public, which includes the overall organizations performance, availability and presence of experts in the specific fields, and the establishment of regulators, institutions, and government trusts. Dealing with these factors can create a way in providing an effective and workable risk management in the health care industry. It was concluded that having a poor and ineffective risk communication could create emotional as well as other financial costs. Moreover, it can lead to public disorder through panic that can exhaust and even waste vital resources upon addressing unnecessary risks at the expense of other vital departments and areas. It can further result in exposing the people in riskier rather than safer circumstances. Upon showing the importance of an effective risk communication, it has been advisable to consider other weaker means and strategies of risk communications and from there creating and devising new methods in improving the old systems and protocols followed by weaker processes. It is established that if risk communication is not workable, the other two processes, risk and crisis management, is affected and even hindered. It can elevate to a disastrous situation wherein the affected population will refuse to adhere any recommended preventive methods and treatment procedures (Adil, 2008). Balance should be made on each stakeholders and policy-makers part such as regulating the information and the process in which these are being relayed and disseminated.
    Maibach and colleagues (1991) discussed and elaborated on the changes in self-efficacy and health behavior in response to a minimal contact community health campaign. It created the suggestion that the baseline levels and the alterations and modifications in the perceived personal efficacy are both essential in mediating the adoption and acceptance of health behaviors in the ideals and principles of long-term community health advocacy. Creating a pre- to post evaluation pattern and model, they used path models in establishing the relationships and connections between the self-perceived self-efficacy, the level of campaign exposure, and the four different and separate health behaviors. It was then found out that exposure to health campaigns and advocacy programs as well as keeping the public properly informed about the latest health issues increased the level of perceived self-efficacy. Moreover, the baseline and alterations in the perceived self-efficacy contribute to the general adoption and acceptance of health characteristics and behaviors and that these baseline and changes in health behavior further provide an overall development and improvement of the perceived self-efficacy. A negative correlation has been established between self-efficacy and the changes that accompany it, which can further explain the results from previous researches and studies that show baseline self-efficacy alone cannot predict the following behavioral manifestations. The paper also reported the initial investigations that show the relationship between self-efficacy and health behavior in terms of discussing and evaluating a health information campaign. Researches that employ and required longitudinal experimentation and a minimum of three points of observation can be of great help in improving how medical professionals and the people understand the reciprocal interaction between self-efficacy and behavior. Additional researches and studies should also divert to the identification and evaluation of public messaging system and strategies that has the ability to increase health-related self-efficacy. By doing so, self-efficacy can be a great factor that affects the overall effectiveness of public health risk communication with the accompanying perception and attitude towards the different approaches applied in disseminating the necessary and needed information (Maibach et al., 1991).

    Nelson, Lurie and Wasserman (2007) made as assessment on the extent of public health emergency awareness and preparedness considering the current concepts, technological advancement in tools as well as the challenges that the current system faces. The governments effort, especially the legislative body, has been a major consideration in terms of assessing the overall effectiveness of public health risk communication for the past few decades. Their increased determination in the specific duties and responsibilities of the federal government in terms of its current increased investments in public health preparedness system has created any significant improvement especially when called to respond to larger-scale public health emergencies. They are measuring the governments success rate in terms of its ability to be more prepared and aware in responding to medical emergencies. The current public health system needs an overall modification in its ability to respond and act upon specific types of emergencies depending on the situation and manner on how it will be treated and resolved especially when it involves public health, safety and security. However, the question remains on how to define public health emergency preparedness as well as the acceptable level of preparedness as to how well one can consider that there was sufficient preparedness made and how one can measure the extent of preparedness needed on a certain type of emergency or urgent situation. The paper further identified and evaluated the major challenges that are associated with the measurement of public health sufficiency and preparedness level as well providing a deeper review on the approaches that are currently used. Also, Nelson and colleagues (2007) identified and cited some currently developing and emerging new measurement approaches and methods that have the potential of addressing some of the major challenges that public health emergency preparedness and health risk communication system is facing. For the past years, the United States have been susceptible to various public health threats and attacks such as the anthrax bioterrorists attacks and other viral and bacterial outbreaks such as SARS, West Nile Virus and Monkey pox as well as the governments responses to natural calamities such as the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Questions and more disputes regarding the general government preparedness will arise upon anticipating the possibility of having a pandemic outbreak of the H5N1 influenza virus (Nelson et al., 2007). Using several parameters in measuring the overall preparedness level and the ability to address major public health concerns, they have found out that written assignments such as checklists, progress reports and surveys can be applied and implemented to a wider set of health departments and offices. However, they usually have a poor job in measuring the effectiveness of the preparation process and may suffer reliability and accuracy issues. Exercises on the other hand, have a greater potential providing observable results from direct jurisdictions ability to impose their authority and capabilities, commonly in responding to contrived situations. However, this process is usually costly and not related to provide clear performance standards and metrics. It is through proper embedding procedure that exercise-based evaluations in regular activities that the costs can be reduced and yet increasing the frequency on which they are administered or implemented. Furthermore, having sound structural look-back strategies can help the decision-making and the authorities in getting more achievable events and learning from their routine and non-routine activities. Further researches and studies should focus on means of developing several performance qualities that are reliant on process-mapping procedures. It can also be helpful if one will be exploring the evaluations embedded that can address cost issues and that mathematical patterns can be used in providing more ways to write standards that can lessen the variations degree of preparedness thus, eliminating the boundaries of helpful variation approached in public emergency preparedness.

    From the past years of experiences with bioterrorist attacks and other public health threats, the government has been capitalizing on the learning that has been gained. Tinker (2002) from the U.S. Public Health Service made some recommendations to improve health risk communication as it is believed to be a vital part in addressing serious public health and safety threats as well as decreasing casualties and number of affected people in these situations. Furthermore, tinker established the major role that the government plays in terms of informing and addressing the public with latest advances and information, mobilizing resources and work force during crises and developing rehabilitative plans for post crises. The ever-growing public concern and awareness for the past years coming from a variety of environmental health and safety risks have created new requirements, demands and responsibilities on the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) departments, agencies and offices. They are then mandated to provide updated information that creates a clear, comprehensible and publicly understandable definition, description and explanation on the nature of risks that can pose serious threat to human lives. Using previous experiences, it has been observed that simply and plainly disseminate and relay information without any reliability or application of communication principles can lead the public to ineffective and inadequate health messages further causing unreliable public health actions. Tinker (2002) then studied and evaluated the results provided by the Subcommittee on Risk Communication and Education of the Environmental Health Policy Committee (EHPC) of the PHS. He focused on the way, methods and approaches that these agencies are using in communicating and relaying information regarding health risks. Moreover, the paper evaluated the efficacy and overall effectiveness of these communications and what particular principles, approaches, strategies and practices would be suitable enough to promote effective health risk communication. The Subcommittees report paper focused on the development of specific recommendations and areas of improvement regarding the effectiveness of the public health information dissemination that has been provided to, and received from, the public. It also provided several suggestions on the basic and primary principles created from a series of case studies coming from PHS agencies pertaining to plans and suitable actions to be carried out in providing efficient and effective risk communication activities (Tinker, 2002). At the end of the study, the Subcommittee EPCH provided several endorsements that creates the baseline and idea of identification of some specific strategies that can be considered for implementation by EPCH in order to address their four other recommendations. It has been observed that the strategies being implemented by PHS agencies have been coming from the following areas developing and improving programs, building and strengthening partnerships, developing and conducting trainings, expanding information, and continuous conduction of research and evaluation. Moreover, the PHS has described the ideas and strategies in sufficient detail in order to provide the needed guidance to establish priorities and practicality in terms of implementing them among PHS agencies (Tinker, 2002).

    Defining health risk communication in a comprehensible and understandable manner especially for the nonprofessionals is a task initiated by Kreps (1998). Health risk communication or health communication has been treated as a mechanism through which health-related messages and information are being communicated and relayed from the scientific and medical experts and public health agencies to the people who are affected by this information. It has been more focused on the parameters of health communication as having a major role in human performance and mediation of communication for the proper delivery of health care assistance and services as well as promoting good health and lifestyle to the public. Having a clear and concise communication system is very essential and vital to the success of public health practice considering the ecological perspective. They must provide a variety of communication pathways at every level of the organization, which may probably consider individual to mass communications. Social behaviors are also considered on the way these sets of information are being communicated at home, in schools, medical offices and hospitals as well as the workplace. With modern equipment and technological advancements especially in communications, public health risk communication can be made easier and more accessible to public. Television, radio, cellular phones, other major telecommunication developments, and even the Internet can be utilized and maximized in order to make timely and updated information, which in return, can help public health agencies in increasing the effectiveness of health risk communication. Current developments in the field of public health communication are the involvement of other field of studies and disciplines such as communication, social sciences such as sociology, psychology and public health as well as medicine. These made a significant step in making these professionals focus on more specialized fields such as health or communication making them equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge needed to apply effective health communication (Kreps, 1998).

    Currently, the U.S. as well as the global public health sector has been alarmed and threatened by the rapid outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1). In an article by Parry (2009), risk communication has been a vital instrument in keeping the mortality rate from Influenza A (H1N1) at a lower level. Hospitals and other medical institutions in cooperation and intervention of the government, preparedness measures and reliable risk communication are important to reduce and lessen death cases from H1N1 influenza. It can be noted as an example that Mexico, by doing influenza surveillances from April to July 2009, has been able to assess and evaluate the total admission of influenza patients and the mortality rate from them. With proper and reliable risk communication, the survival rate for H1N1 influenza has been greatly affected with a 92 confirmed recovery, 7 have survived with cautious treatment and less than 1 have been recorded as cases of death. Mexican health professionals and experts stated that a seasonal influenza vaccine can be helpful in reducing the threats if H1N1 infection. It has been further believed that with the present information available, the virus will not cause a pandemic in some other future however, it has been observed as well that the virus is continuously evolving and is becoming a major threat to other countries (Parry, 2009).

    Influenza A (H1N1) has become a serious threat to U.S. public health and safety. In a study conducted by the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM), several tips or strategies can be applied in order to have an effective risk communication as what have been observed and applied to Army Preventive Medicine agencies as well as their medical staff in relation to H1N1 influenza (USACHPPM, 2009). With the rapid spread of H1N1 influenza throughout the United States and other countries, army personnel, as well as civilians will seek advice from health care professionals for information and answers to major inquiries or even turn to traditional personal preventive medication. The Army has initiated its efforts in identifying the possible trends in terms of disease manifestations and symptoms such that its medical staff can provide sufficient guidance, advice and even medical treatment. They can also share some opinions and insights regarding the seriousness of the situation with the use of their considerable knowledge, training, and experiences. Risk communication is an effective way of handling such outbreaks and infections. It has the greatest capability of increasing public awareness, concern and understanding of the situation and can reduce and alleviate negative reactions such as unnecessary fear and anxiety but rather trigger timely actions that can create prevention rather than chaos and panic (USACHPPM, 2009).

    Risk communication is an essential part of securing public health and safety. It has to be always clear and concise with faster and wider means of being disseminated to the public. Moreover, health risk communication should address major concerns that in return, can increase and improve the level of public preparedness and timely response to most situations.

In the world we live in we are surrounded by information. This information can be either useful or not. Its usefulness depends on whether we can access it when we need it. The methodology of accessing the information will thus constitute metadata. Simply put, metadata is information about information.
Using the example of a library, the catalogue can be considered as metadata. A person gene code can also be considered as metadata. A library catalogue is only useful if one knows how to use it. Other wise it can as well be a piece of paper to light a fire with. A library catalogue is a goldmine in the hands of a librarian looking for a particular book. Just like the gene code is a goldmine in the hands a researcher looking at ways of combating or diagnosing disease.
With the advent of the worldwide web, information has become increasingly easily accessible.  Instead of having to go physically to a library, one need only to lay their hands on a computer with internet access and viola, all the information in the world is accessible at ones finger tips. One can have access to information contained in far off libraries and in some cases even in private libraries.
One challenge when it comes to accessing old manuscripts is the care needed in handling such materials. Some of it can only be viewed under ultraviolet light others can not be touched by open hands, while others can not be exposed to a humid atmosphere. Since all this information is necessary for the continued advancement of the human knowledge and since knowledge not shared is not knowledge, this material is scanned or photographed and then stored in digital files.
    When one visits a library, one can either search for the material they need by title or author. In case one is not sure exactly what they need, that is, they have a general topic they could be directed to the section of the library where books dealing with the general topic are kept. They would then browse until they find one with the kind of information they need
A digital library is a collection of digital information. This information could be from books, journals, periodicals or multimedia. It is usually easily accessible to the general public. There are however restrictions that have to be maintained. This includes ease of uploading and modifying information available to the public. This ensures civility is maintained.
Given that digital libraries hold a very large amount of information, it is therefore necessary to develop a way of retrieving different information. Be it a book, topic, journal, picture, piece of music or even a periodical, access to this information has to be systematic or the library retrieval system would collapse.
Metadata is ideal for this work. Given the versatility of metadata, it is possible to keep a lot of data at the same time and retrieve it without having problems. Metadata makes it possible for many people to access the same information simultaneously without any of them having access problems. It also makes it possible for information to be made confidential and only accessible by authorized persons. This allows for tracking of people accessing such information incase it is used for malicious intentions.
Metadata can be used in video recording (title, director, actors, summary of contents, age rating), books (title, author, subject, chapters, text language). Also it can be used in images (digital photographs and computer created images), labeling audio recordings and also in web pages (web language  HTML is metadata).
The question arises, how do we protect metadata since it permeates all aspects of our lives This paper will seek to interrogate on security issues arising from the use of metadata. How secure are digital information available to the public What security measures are available to protect personal information How can one secure a web page from unauthorized manipulation of content How can one secure a document and its content How can one secure personal email communication
Discussion.
Security in this digital age is paramount. People are increasingly finding themselves victims of identity theft. Organizations like bank continuously have to keep updating their security protocols least they fall prey to fraudsters and hackers. For digital libraries, what can they do to secure their systems and contents
Digital libraries can be described as information infrastructure which provides various kinds of data services for promoting knowledge (Guo  Zhao 2008). There must be a digital intelligence environment in order to regulate and police dissemination channels and mechanism of information sharing. In order for this to be successful, some guiding principles need to be observed and adhered to. These enables all to operate within a common set of rules in semantic and machine interoperability for any one using metadata standards.
Metadata modularity is characterized by great amount of knowledge, different ways of managing this knowledge and ways to describe each individual resource. It allows for creation of metadata plans by taking advantage of best practices instead of having to design new ones. Thus one does not have to worry about syntax and semantics since this is already taken care of. Since these are the building blocks of information, metadata can be seen like Lego blocks. Their versatility allows for construction of different structures using the same blocks. So does metadata.
Just like human have individual names so too metadata. Since this are the building blocks of data, there must be a unique way of naming and identifying metadata. This should make it easy for anyone working with metadata structures to be able to integrate with already pre-existing systems. For example, just as there are rules and procedures of making and naming catalogues, the same applies for metadata. This makes for universality of operations.
If there exists best practice in metadata systems and this is available for all to use, it should exist in a way that all one needs is the basic structure and one can add on.  For example a basic metadata element found in most metadata structure could be the creator who depending on the community could be the author, translator or even designer. But some metadata are unique to specific communities for example wind speed and direction to air traffic data. This should be able to grow on each other effortlessly.
A piece of information could mean different things to different communities. For example, 030609 as an information string could mean 3rd June 2009 or March 6th 2009. In order to go around these challenge additional two things could be done. Firstly, the use of additional qualifiers brings out the specific meaning of the information (use of letter characters instead of numbers to denote the month). Or   secondly, to specify the specific structure to for particular elements (specify that dates strings will be monthdateyear). This will mean date information will come from controlled vocabulary. By using controlled vocabulary in particular, metadata will guarantee access and interpretation on information uniformly universally.
Metadata structures must respect linguistic and cultural diversity. In as much as there is need for universality in order to guarantee information is accessible by all, this should not be at the expense of localization. Different characters and symbols mean different things to different communities. Metadata allows for this to be captured accurately. Some areas of uniqueness could include, how different calendars show their dates, which direction people write- left-to-right or right-to-left, and  standard of practice and cultural connotations of certain icons and pictograms (Duval, Hodgins, Sutton, Weibel, 2002) When this is tackled interoperability will be achieved.
Metadata will enhance digital library security because of its inherent uses and structure. In resource discovery, it allows for resource identification, brings similar resources together, informing the user where the resource can be found and allowing the resource to be found in relevant criteria. What needs to done while emending the fields and variable is to have a structure that allows for access of restricted materials through laid down protocols for sensitive material.

Increasingly, people store information electronically. The need to be able to organize this stored material in an orderly fashion arises. This has to be done while maintaining the integrity of the material. Metadata allows for this to be achieved more, easily and conveniently through the use of name and location information specified at storage.
In digital libraries, information must be easily understood by both humans and machines. Metadata allows for this. It makes for easy operations of systems with different software and hardware. This particular aspect can be seen as creating a security risk. Since interoperability is integral to metadata use and by extension digital library survival, one of two approaches is used to achieve this.
 Cross-system (NISO, 2004), search allows for operators to create their unique search attributes which are shared on a common platform. This ensures the basic design of the information they operate is not compromised. Its like been given a map to a place and ensuring it omits all unnecessary information. In Open Archive Initiative (NISO, 2004), operators translate their metadata into a common protocol for easy harvesting. A search service provider then gathers all this, organizes it centrally in a common index to allow for cross library searching regardless of metadata formats used.
In order to have order in a potentially disorderly world of metadata, standard numbers to identify unique works or objects are used in metadata (this is the vocabulary of metadata). Just like in a conventional library, accessibility is important. Every piece of information is thus given either a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or a DOI (Digital Objective Identifier). This assists in easy retrieval of material when needed. It is in these metadata that security features are embedded.
The one thing a library must do is ensure the materials in its custody survive for a long time. This is has been a danger with digital materials especially considering its fragility. Metadata has however allowed for archiving and preservation. In order for this to succeed, metadata is used to track changes to a document over time to allow for continues access even as technology changes. This is also allows for reversal of intentional or accidental corruption or alterations of a digital object.
For metadata to be of use to anybody, it must have a standard by which all people abide by. Just like the alphabet from which language is made, so too metadata. Dublin Core is a simple yet effective standard for use in metadata (Hillman, 2007).
The characteristics of Dublin core are, Title-the name given to the resource. Subject-the topic of the content of the resource, expressed as keywords or phrases. Description - what the resources contains in it. Type - what it is.  For example Sound, image, text or in some cases an aggregation of two or more. Source - this is in reference to where the information is gotten from. Relation-this describes if the information is related to any other.
Coverage - extent and scope of the information. Creator-who is responsible for making the information content.  Publisher - who has made the resource available. Contributor - who has assisted in the growth the information content.  Rights-to whom the rights over and in the information accrue to. Date-could be the date the information was created or even stored, it need be important to the information. Format - digital and physical manifestation of the information. Identifier - an ambiguous reference to the information within a given text.  Language - what language the information content is in.  Audience - who the intended user of the information is, this may be determined by the creator, publisher or by a third party.
Provenance-a clear statement on the ownership of the information since creation that are important for its interpretation, authenticity and integrity. Rights holder - the person or organization owning or managing the information rights. Instructional method-the process intended for support by the information used to engender knowledge, skills or attitudes. Accrual method - how additional information will be added. Accrual periodicity - frequency of adding new information. Accrual policy - how additional information will be added.
Unfortunately, even with a clear and precise tool as metadata, it is common to get objections ranging from its complexity, lack of implementation finances to others who are not willing to assist users access rights information to materials in their domain (Whelan 2008). What digital libraries need to remember, even driving a stick-car can be complicated. But once one has mastered the basic, building need not be instantaneous but gradual. Step-by-step until one achieves the desired results. Also, rights metadata is not only for intellectual property laws compliance but digital libraries need to remember they are custodians of this information for generations to come. If not well taken care of in entirety, those to come may never understand where they are coming from.
For metadata to be understood, shared and processed in useful ways by computers it must be in a language that they can easily understand. This challenge was overcome through the use of Resource Description Framework (RDF) (Gill 2008). This has become an excellent base from which digital libraries have used to make information easily available to consumers.
Conclusion
It is clear from this research that metadata has been with us for a very long time. It has been used since the turn of the century by librarians and archivists as a tool for keeping and retrieving information (Gilliland, A. J. 2008). Even today, in different areas and aspects of out lives we are continually use metadata in organizing information.
In order to maintain security integrity in digital libraries, this paper agree and supports  Choi  Rasmussen (2006), assertion that future librarians will have to knowledgeable both in traditional library functions and information technology. These two areas are complementary of each other in an increasingly digital society.
Security will continue to be a major cause of concern in days to come. With the increasing digitalization of information, the people who will take care of security concerns of both information users and consumers will find their services exceedingly sought after. This will increasingly be the distinguishing trait between a good digital library and a mediocre one. If in the age of conventional libraries security was such a sensitive issue, how about now when even more material is available

In my personal, professional and community life, I have tried to be as humble and down to earth as possible. I treat everyone on the basis of the qualities he possesses as a human being and not on the basis of his status or post. I never try to display any aggressive or passive behavior. I believe that if I am cold or abusive towards anyone, I am not degrading the person on the other end, rather reducing my own personal standards and code of ethics.
I consider myself a learner always and this is the reason why my demeanor changed for the better after participating in the doctoral program. I got connected to a vast amount of knowledge through this doctoral program. I wondered, how tiny I am considered to the whole world around me. The wonderful doctoral experience thus made me more humble and down to earth. I have started appreciating the diversity of opinions and respect every ones views.

2) Since the future coursework would in some ways be an extension of SEM700R, much effort would not be required from my side. Rather automatically I would be able to connect my past insight with the current one. I will apply my past insight to grasp the knowledge faster and more accurately. My doctoral readiness has changed positively in the past 2 weeks. I have shed lots of inhibitions and I am more comfortable and confident with my situation and status of mental ability.
As I take the next step in the doctoral journey, I would raise the bar of expectations for my SAS peers, and myself by being more attentive and instilling this attitude in my peers as well. I would try to motivate my peers to aim higher this time so that better results are achieved. This way the learning demeanor of my peers and myself would become even more refined. This in turn would help in raising the bar of expectations for all of us. We will have to act the way we want ourselves to be projected. Actions speak more than words.

The organizations services and advocacies has continued for more than 90 years promoting practical approaches about womens health and welfare, with grounds for the respect of each persons right to receive information, having their own decisions on sex, health and family planning (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    PPFA is also offers the most trusted reproductive health care for individuals in diverse communities. Their team consisting of health professionals are committed to providing people the quality health care at an affordable and reasonable price. Planned Parenthood serves the local community with a total of 91 governed affiliates throughout the nation which operate more than 850 health centers reflecting the different needs of each of the communities (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    PPFAs health centers provides various safe and reliable health care services have more than 90 preventive, primary care which can help prevent unintended pregnancies by using contraceptives and lessen the spread of the sexually transmitted diseases by testing and treatment, and screening for cervical and other types of cancers. All the health staff consisting of physicians, nurses and other health practicioners give their patients time to listen to their health problems and encourage individuals to give inquiries (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    In addition, the organization informs and educates the American community about sexual and reproductive health. Its accurate and authentic information enables all individuals to live healthy lives and have right decisions. The role of Planned Parenthood in providing honest information on sexuality and relationships in educational environments contributes to the lessening of teenage pregnancies and prevention of STDs. Every year, more than 1.2 million young people take part in the Planned Parenthoods educational programs (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    In various settings such as campuses, communities and media, Planned Parenthood is a dedicated advocate of the rights of every American to have access to extensive sexual and reproductive health care information and education. The organization strives to fight for the authorization of all individuals to access reasonable methods of contraception and the protection of the youth by offering ample information regarding sex education (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    Planned Parenthood has a total of four million members consisting of supporters, acitivists and donors across the nation. The online activists in all the states are always updated with the issues concerning campaigns that protect womens rights and health through the Planned Parenthood Action Network. Moreover, the organizations extends its mission to initiatives and advisory boards (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    PPFA is politically armed with the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan organization. The Action Fund strengthens PPFAs dedication to protecting the health of women, preventing unintended pregnancies and educating the youth through its engagement in electoral activities which consists of grassroots organizaing, legislative advocacies and educational campaigns (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    Due to poverty, lack of services, war and political turmoil, many people around the world do not have the proper access on information and services on reproductive and sexual healthcare. These are the reasons the Planned Parenthood is reaching out to other countries through their local partners in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The organization sustains health and educational programs through local leadership in order for these areas to have proper reception to the various health services. Its international programs advocates the reasonable foreign policies of the U.S. which can help improve the sexual well-being and health of people around the world. It makes an effort to partner with various womens organizations, groups and family planning advocates to share different ideas, experiences and knowledge in the developing world. The organization strongly believes that every individual in this world must be given proper access to preventive sexual health care which includes birth control, cancer screenings, testing and treatment of STDs (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    Planned Parenthood strives hard in sustaining reproductive freedom for all individuals in the country and around the world. A sign of effective management of an organization is keeping up with the recognized best practices (Herman  Renz, 1999). In the case of Planned Parenthood, its health practices and any actions concerning reproductive health are trusted by individuals therefore it continues to expand globally. It is focused on solving the following six key issues (2009)
Affordable Birth Control and Other Preventive Care
Most women who need basic healthcare including contraceptive care, pelvic exam, counseling, testing and treatment for STDs  go to a health center to pay reasonable amounts. These services are vital for womens protection. It is through working together that implementations on practical preventions of unintended pregancy and affordable access to contraception can be succeful.
Protecting Abortion Access
Majority of Americans support the access to abortion because it is legal and supported by the constitution, however policymakers and anti-choice organizations impede women from having access to these services. Planned Parenthood strive to fight agains these anti-choice organizations to protect the access to various reproductive health care services.
Ensuring Health Care Access
The health care providers of Planned Parenthood are determined to make all health care services affordable and accessible in every community it operates. Most women rely on these services for health care therefore the organization must guarantee that the health care providers are included in the reform for health in order to protect the access for all families.
Expanding Global Reproductive Rights
In some parts of the world, insufficient access to health care, restrictions in legal regulations, gender discrimination, cultural taboos and lack of political determination put a lot of women in dangers of unintended pregnancy, unsafe chilbirth and abortion and STDs.
Planned Parenthood envisions to break down the barriers to proper access of reproductive health services and practicing reproductive health freedom through empowerment worldwide. PPFA addresses the said challenges through the  innovative projects in 17 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Fighting for Real Sex Ed
In this year, it is projected that more than 700,000 teens in the United States will become pregnant and by the age of 25, half of the number of sexually active people will have STDs. By preventing these cases, sex education for all indivuduals must be provided in order for them to become responsible and stay healthy.
Bringing real sex education back to American schools is the main goal of Planned Parenthood regarding sex ed and it rejects the promotion of abstinence-only programs promoting abstinence. The issues they are currently dealing with are the following
            -evidence-based sex education programs
            -abstinence-only programs
            -the state of teen health
Opposing Attacks on Women s Health
It is the right of every woman to have access to health care without worrying about violence, intimadation and harassment. Moreover, the youth must be able to gain correct information about protecting their own health. All individuals must be able to make their own decisions about their reproductive health without any hindrances. Planned Parenthood works to make every individual have all the access they need without instrusions.
    As mentioned before, aggression of teenagers towards sex is caused by various sex content portrayed in different kinds of media. A study conducted by the University of Alberta in rural areas reveal that one of three boys aged 13 and 14 are heaver pornographic users. 74 of these boys have used the internet (University of Alberta, n.d.). If internet is the problem, then the internet can also be the solution. Planned Parenthood (2009) offers online health education 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The following media platforms are used in order to spread real sex education online
Website properties - plannedparenthood.org and teenwire.com (its award-winning website for teenagers
Social media (social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, user-generas content sites, and blogs)
digital outreach (search engines, such as Google)
e-mail (interactive campaigns and newsletters)
    Its website for teenagers, teenwire.com, focuses on the various concerns of teens regarding sex. Its contents include the topics about Dating, Family  Friends, Body  Mind
Sex  Masturbation, Birth Control, Safer Sex  STDs, Teen Pregnancy and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender  Questioning. It offers various question and answer discussions and animations presentations (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    Aside from online resources, there are also programs for teenagers in national and affiliate levels promoting open dialogues, mentoring, community work, peer education opportunities and creative learning (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    Planned Parenthood has a social change effort called Real Life. Real Talk. It encourages healthy and friendly communication about sexuality within families and communities which can enable the youth to have a positive, realistic and productive discussions. This program was developed upon discussions with parents and teenagers by the organization. This program can be a a bridge for parents in talking about sexual health to their own children. Real Life. Real Talk reaches out to more than 150 local community affiliates which do not ordinarily work with Planned Parenthood. These partners include renowned medical institutions, faith organization and public libraries (Planned Parenthood, 2009).
    There are also education and training programs offered by Planned Parenthood which promotes healthy sexuality through various strategies that address issues about contraception and STDs. These are the following programs by Planned Parenthood (2009)
All Together Now
Planned Parenthood educators from seven affiliates participated in an evaluation of PPFA s curriculum, All Together Now. Educators delivered the curriculum to more than 300 youth in 11 sites around the country. The curriculum addresses contraception and safer sex, making healthy decisions, and sexual health care. Evaluation outcomes showed a significant increase in students  knowledge, in their attitudes toward using contraception and safer sex practices, and their intention to put these attitudes into practice.
Safer Sex
Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey sponsored Safer Sex,
an educational program about preventing sexually transmitted infections. A follow-up survey found that 99 percent of participating students increased their knowledge about contraception and sexually transmitted infections. The average scores on pre-tests and post-tests improved by 7 percent. Additionally, 95 percent of students indicated they would make healthier choices regarding sexual behavior.
Conclusion
    Planned Parenthood has taken different plans of action in providing excellent and affordable access to various reproductive health care services as well as education and information on reproductive health. These services and programs are aimed at improving the health of individuals and promoting the well-being of all the members of the family.