Should somebody just say it? No, they aren’t prepared. They aren’t listening to us.
However, there is good news in that there are many anecdotal stories about taking a class or getting prepared and then that new preparedness came in very handy soon after. But on a larger scale, what percentage of the population is prepared the way we want them to be? My experience is that it is very small… and to us in the industry, we cannot figure out why people don’t listen to us and heed our warnings. This is National Preparedness Month and we all focus staff time, money and other resources on the problems, but does it change behaviors? This is an excellent piece just released by CalEMA. Please review it after you finish reading this blog.
The world of adult education has taught us that you can change human behavior using a combination of methods to motivate the adult learner. These are referred to learning domains- and both adult education, as well as childhood education base curriculum development on the learning objectives of what you want to accomplish at the end of the instruction
Cognitive- this is the “knowing” or “thinking” domain. The adult learner changes their behavior because they now know something new. People know they should get prepared. Why don’t they?
Psychomotor- this is the “doing” or “manipulative” or “hands-on” learning. Some people just don’t have the tools or the skills to do some tasks. Changing a battery in a smoke detector, securing the water heater to the wall, exposing your street numbers so emergency responders can find you—these are all items that require some degree of “doing” with your hands.
Affective- this domain is the core of what we try to teach and preach in preparedness. This is the “feelings” or “emotional” aspect of learning. For adults, this domain is the most important because it is the power behind making the change. It is also the most difficult to teach and measure, in terms of quantifiable behavior changes.
“It’ll never happen to me” is clearly an affective response to the need to be prepared. People may KNOW what to do and be able to DO it, they just don’t. Here is where we need to focus our attention and efforts and find ways to reward and reinforce desired behavior; deter undesired behavior/no action.
We live in the greatest country in the world and our citizens believe that public safety services will ALWAYS be there to assist and rescue them, no matter what hazards they are facing. But in this age of fiscal constraints, an increasing number of jurisdictions will not be able to sufficiently respond to a disaster, regardless of the intent.
Myths and bad information still create an obstacle for us to overcome. “I don’t wear my seatbelt because I don’t want to be trapped in the burning car when it explodes.” Really? Yes, those kinds of arguments can still be heard. The list of excuses and lack of action is a mile long. This is not unique in our field. The medical professionals fighting obesity, heart disease, smoking and so on also face the same challenges—getting adults to change behaviors. Social marketing really started in the public health world, (anti-smoking, immunization, AIDS prevention, etc.) but it has been very successful in traffic safety (seat belt compliance, sober driving, and child passenger safety).
The job of Prevention and Preparedness will never be done—we have job security, so to speak, since there will always be an audience we need to touch and people’s behaviors we need to change. Here is a call to action for more aggressive partnerships with the private sector - businesses, nonprofits, community groups, churches, etc. - to make a difference!
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