Understandable policies during a pandemic?
I think it would be safe to argue that our lives have changed severely since the COVID-19 virus has entered our world. Every day, we are reminded of the presence of the pandemic by having to wear masks, or by that small feeling of guilt when we have to sneeze in public. And if that isn’t a reminder enough, then there is always your daily news with a special subcategory considering the developments of the virus and an update on which measures apply. Since it plays such a large factor in our lives, the skill of understanding information on this topic and using that information to make the right decisions, has become increasingly important. A skill that is also known as health literacy.
But what happens if you have difficulties with this skill? What happens if you simply do not understand what is being said in the news? You would not be able to adapt your life-style to keep yourself and those around you safe. Therefore, it is important that policies are accessible and understandable for everyone.
How could we go about that?
Let’s take a look at the example of Pharos. This Dutch organization provides simplified information for people coping with those difficulties. Considering the pandemic, they have produced multiple factsheets on vaccination policies. Besides this, Pharos provides advice to companies and policy-makers on how to make their information accessible for everyone. Pharos has for instance evaluated the public opinion on the developing vaccinations, and has found that many people find it difficult to understand what is being said by the government. They advised the government to visualize their messages and to test them on a representative group of people before releasing them.
How effective is this?
On the one hand you could say that Pharos has been very effective in influencing the corona policies. They work closely on research with the RIVM, which is the main advisory body on health issues in the Netherlands, and thus is their advice taken very seriously. However, on the other hand, you could say that their effectiveness is arguable. Despite their advice to the government to simplify their messages beginning 2021, a similar advice has to be given again later that year.
So, although it still depends on the government whether they actually listen to the tips and tricks being given, an advisory body such as Pharos could be an effective method in taking health literacy into account when developing new policies.
Really interesting piece! It gives a nice insight in the effectiveness of policy making in times of a pandemic and how advisory bodies are struggling with the communication to citizens!
Hi Isis! Thank you for the nice compliment! Great to hear that you find it an interesting topic as well 🙂
Your article is easy to read and offers a good insight about Pharos. I never heard about that kind of policies in this domain . Therefore I am very interesting about their efficiency. Can you think about another health domain in which such an organisation would be helpful? In other words do you think it has potential to tackle other health societal problem?
Hi Léa! Thank you! I do believe that an organisation such as Pharos is also able to tackle other health societal problems. As a matter of fact, Pharos is not even specialized in the pandemic, but already discusses many other health issues as being able to understand chronic diseases, the risks about smoking, issues that can appear by getting older, etc. Besides this they also discuss different approaches to different societal groups varying from elderly to migrants and many more! I really recommend taking a look at their website! They have many different fact sheets on many different topics considering different societal groups. This is the link to their (English :)) website: https://www.pharos.nl/english/.
Thank you for your answer! That is super interesting and nice to hear that Pharos already discussed other health societal issues. Thank you for the link, I will definitely check their website to learn more. I will also try to find if similar initiatives exist in my country.
Thanks – no link yet? I am not the only one looking for a link. 🙂 Of course an intereseting phenomenon, also because of its ‘success’ (rare in this domain). I wondered: why is Pharos succesful in communicating about corona where the ‘normal’ government communication fails? Does it only depend on their language use, or is it also a question of reputation and branding, other ways of being visible, of reaching specific groups in the population? To which extent is their communication really ‘framed’ for an audience with less reading competences?
Thanks for your comment, Charles! I thought I already put the link in, but I see now that I forgot indeed. I will change it immediately. And regarding your question: I do believe that besides using easier language, there are other reasons why Pharos is more successful than the government in its communications. If you go to their website (http://www.Pharos.nl )(which is hopefully now also linked in the post itself :)), you can see in their Agenda that they do not only provide easier communication factsheets, but they also give presentations and organize gatherings for schools, hospitals, migration centers, and others about the importance of using their strategies. Therefore, they reach more specific groups than the government could ever reach with their general messages. Hopefully this answers your question?
Hi Judith!! Your post is really interesting!! As Lea already said in her comment, I never heard about such organizations either. It is crazy though that the government, that should the one voice that we all should be trusting and confiding in is also the one unable to reach ‘us’. It is unbelievable that Pharos is the one that actually provides information that the people are looking for. I have a question for, maybe it is clear for others already from reading the blog, but not for me. Why exactly does Pharos have to give other advice later this year? I want to end this comment by saying that I completely agree that such organizations, at this point and given the situation, have to become part of the policy making process to have a more efficient system on such a delicate topic that if coped in the wrong manner can become even a more dangerous issue than what it already is. Thank you very much for writing about it!
Hi Matilde! Thank you for all your kind words <3 Regarding your question: I did not mean that Pharos has to give advice again later this year. What I did mean is that despite already having given the advice to the government simplify and test their policies before releasing them to the public, the government made the same mistakes as before, and Pharos had to give that same advice again later that same year. Hopefully this lightens up things a bit. Thank you for noticing that it might not be clear from the way I have written it, I will take a look at that! Don't hesitate to ask any additional questions!
Hi Judith, thank you for your interesting post. You already mentioned that the government does not always follow the advise of Pharos, and thus I think their reach is already limited. So to what extend do you think that the simplified information from Pharos actually reaches those people that need it? Because as I had never heard of it before, I could imagine that people that struggle with literacy would also have trouble finding this information.
Hi Julia! Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it. And you make a very good point. Indeed, I am Dutch as well and had never heard of Pharos either. Therefore, one could indeed question its limited reach. Although I do not have any evidence or numbers for its concrete reach, I do think Pharos’ reach is still relatively large. The thing is, besides giving literacy training and providing factsheets, they play more on the background. They give training and provide information to health care institutions or migration centers, and they even are co-researchers with institutions such as the RIVM! But you do still have a valid point that the name ‘Pharos’ is not well-known in the Netherlands, which actually is the same as the entire issue of illiteracy. Maybe it is about time that we bring some change to that? Hopefully this answers your question and don’t hesitate to ask more!!
Yes, thank you for your reply! And lets hope that with this blog we are making a start to raising awareness about literacy 😉
Hello Judith, I found your blog very interesting and I think it is very necessary that organisations try to help in such important issues as medical literacy because in these times of pandemic every little bit of help is very important. About your blog: do you think that governments should take this kind of iniciatives to be able to inform the population instead of external organisations without any kind of connection or should they not be obliged to do so? thank you very much.
Hi! Thanks for your comment! That’s a good question. Personally, I believe that it might work best if it were to be a separate organisation integrated within the framework of, and binding to, the government. Firstly, this way, you still have people working on this issue that have great expertise in the field of literacy and have this as their first priority (instead of politicians dealing with multiple issues at the same time). And secondly, if the government is bound by this organization, you won’t encounter the same problem as I mentioned Pharos has: a government that doesn’t do anything with the feedback it gets! So, my opinion would be that integrating the organization into the government itself would be most efficient. Overall, since illiteracy is still such a big issue with so many different consequences (take a look at all the different blogposts), I do think that the government should have some sort of obligation to take some initiative to improve it! Hopefully this answers your question and I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue as well, since their are many possibilities. What do you think would be better? Keeping them separate or putting the initiative at governmental level?