Talking about Immunisation: Communicating with Your Community about Childhood Immunisations - A Guide for Healthcare Workers

"As healthcare workers, you play a critical role in promoting immunisation. Parents and caregivers trust you to give them accurate information about health, especially children’s health and even more so during a disease outbreak."

This guide is designed to help nurses, health promoters, community healthcare workers, and social mobilisers to communicate with communities about childhood immunisations. Published for the South African Department of Health with support from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the objective of the guide is to support health workers to address vaccine hesitancy and help increase trust in vaccines and vaccinators, as well as to keep improving their vaccine knowledge through platforms that are regularly updated.

In particular, this resource offers guidance on:
 

• Communicating with caregivers about immunisation and its benefits;
• Understanding where to get the correct information about the immunisation schedule; and
• Addressing questions and concerns and encouraging caregivers to have their children immunised.

The contents are as follows: 
 

• Why Do Some People Not Immunise Their Children?
• What Is Your Role in Communicating about Immunisation?
• Did You Know? - provides facts about vaccine hesitancy and vaccine deniers.
• A Tough Job - highlights the importance of health workers in keeping children healthy.
• What Should You Do? - offers ideas on how to communicate with caregivers to help them keep up to date with children's immunisation schedules.
• Build Trust: Listen, Ask, Educate, Research - suggests ways to communicate respectfully and build trust with someone worried about having their child vaccinated.
• Talking about the Side Effects
• Key Messages to Communicate - lists key messages for both fathers and mothers and guardians when they come to the clinic.
• Putting It into Practice - features examples of scenarios that health workers may encounter and how they should react.
• Become a Vaccine Champion - shares ideas on what healthcare workers can do in their community every day to encourage and promote childhood immunisation.