The Sacramento County Public Health Division has received top national honors for public health communications. The National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) made the announcement during an awards ceremony at its annual conference October 5-8 in San Antonio, TX. At the conference, Sacramento County Public Health Communications & Media Officer Kerry Shearer accepted Gold and Silver awards for two staff-produced videos.
The first video, recognized with a Gold award in the “New Media“ category, concerned July’s terrible smoke and heat wave episode in which the Sacramento region was inundated with smoke and baked with 100-degree-plus temperatures. The four-minute video, which contained tips on health protection from smoke and heat-stress advice, was produced in-house in a matter of hours and immediately uploaded to County, Air Quality Management District, and YouTube web sites. The video logged thousands of views over a several-day period and was also featured in a local television news report. It was written and edited by Kerry Shearer and shot by Glen Cagley
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A second staff-produced video, created to promote National HIV Testing Day, received NPHIC’s Silver award, also in the “New Media” category. It featured fast transitions between more than a dozen people, each delivering a separate line from the script promoting the importance of knowing your HIV status and visiting National HIV Testing Day locations in the Sacramento area. The promotional video was used on County web sites and offered to community partners working on HIV awareness. It was written and produced by Lisa Matulonis, shot by Glen Cagley, and edited by Kerry Shearer.
“I am so proud of the fine work our staff does using cutting-edge technology to communicate important public health issues on a timely basis,” said Glennah Trochet, M.D., Sacramento County’s Health Officer. “We are committed to using “new media” techniques to make health information accessible to the public in as many different ways as they want to receive it. These staff-produced videos and innovative delivery techniques demonstrate that we can move quickly to communicate essential information at minimal cost,” Trochet said.
The award-winning “Sacramento Air Quality/Heat Wave” and “National HIV Testing Day” videos can be viewed on Sacramento County Public Health’s YouTube Channel. The address is www.YouTube.com/SacCountyPH.