Risk communication and community engagement with vulnerable groups: Perceptions of social-services CSOs during Covid-19

Risk communication enables people to be prepared, respond and recover from public health risks which can only be realized with a considerable amount of community engagement. Enabling community involvement is necessary in order to reach and protect vulnerable people during epidemics. In situations of acute emergency, it is difficult to reach everyone, which makes it necessary to work with intermediaries such as social and care facilities and civil society organizations (CSOs) who work to support the most vulnerable in our societies. This paper analyses the perceptions of experts working in social facilities or CSOs of Covid-19 RCCE efforts in Austria. It starts from a broad understanding of vulnerability which combines medical, social and economic determinants. We conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with CSO and social facility managers. The UNICEF core community engagement standards (2020) were used as a framework for qualitative content analysis. The results show that CSO's and social facilities were essential for allowing community involvement of vulnerable people in Austria during the pandemic. For the CSO's and social facilities participation of their vulnerable clients was a real challenge especially because direct contact was difficult and public services were switched to digital only. Nonetheless, they all put a lot of effort into adapting and discussing Covid-19 regulations and measures with their clients and employees which in many cases led to acceptance of public health measures. The study gives recommendations on how community engagement could be enhanced especially from government actors and how CSO's could be addressed more as essential partners.