Effective public health practice starts with effective communication. Every policy, decision, and investment in public health directly affects people’s daily lives — from the water that flows from our taps, to the safety of our neighborhoods, to the opportunities we have to live full and healthy lives.
While public health professionals work every day to promote well-being in their communities, research shows that most people have limited understanding of what public health is and why it matters. This lack of understanding may contribute to distrust of public health organizations and the actions they recommend.
By communicating about specific health topics in a way that’s easy for people to understand and act on, public health professionals can make their communities healthier and safer.
To bridge this gap, the de Beaumont Foundation launched Communicating About Public Health: A Toolkit for Public Health Professionals in February 2025. This toolkit introduced five simple but powerful messages to help professionals explain what public health is and why it matters to general audiences, in ways that resonate with people’s everyday experiences. It also carried an important truth: every public health professional, no matter their role, is a communicator and an ambassador for the field.
Building on that foundation, Communicating About Public Health with Policymakers was launched in December 2025 with a focus on one audience whose understanding and partnership are essential for progress: policymakers. As the decision-makers who allocate resources, set priorities, and create policies, policymakers can have considerable impact on community health outcomes. And there are many opportunities for public health professionals to be more strategic in their interactions with policymakers.