Plain Language for Public Health

By Public Health Communications Collaborative

Effective public health communications are critical to help people stay informed and make decisions about their health. When accurate information about public health is hard to find or understand, it’s easier for false and misleading information to circulate. Using plain language can help your audience find what they need and understand what they find.

PHCC has created a new Plane Language for Public Health guide to support public health communicators in creating messaging to advance health literacy, build trust in your organization as a source of information, and promote overall community health. This guide walks through the following three steps:

• Step 1: Prepare Your Communications 
• Step 2: Develop and Organize Your Communications 
• Step 3: Review and Testing

The guide also shares other plain language techniques to help you build your communications skills. Please download and share the guide with your network so more people can have access to public health information that is easy to find, understand, and use.