Field Placement: Los Angeles County Department of Health Services -- Communications Office
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Preceptor: Maria Iacobo
Student Name: Deepa Seralathan
Year: 2003

Who: The general public of Los Angeles County, through the media, from Department of Health Services, Los Angeles County.

What: Develop and update resources needed to equip the communications office of the Health Department(DHS) to handle media requests, and to help with the internal and external publications of the agency, including generating ideas, writing articles and proof-reading drafts.

When: My internship started on the 2nd of July and ended on 23rd of September, during which I worked for 464 hours. The projects are ongoing and will have to be updated often.

Where: Office of Communications, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. I had my own office, equipped with a computer and phone and my work essentially was in the office. I had to attend a few meetings with staff from other units in other rooms.

Why: The Los Angeles County citizens need consistent information from a reliable source to make their health choices. This is true especially during disasters to avoid panic caused by conflicting advice from the numerous media channels. Due to the non-profit nature of DHS and the expertise possessed by its Public Health staff, DHS becomes an ideal source of this kind of information for the public. Proving this requires an effective communication between the DHS and the public through the press and other publications.

How: The county health department has experts in many fields, who act as spokespersons for problems in their field of expertise. The communications office is the channel between the spokespersons and the media, facilitating the communications. The office provides the reporters with the biographies of these spokespersons, to provide them with their background. I helped write, edit, update, format and compile these biographies. I also drafted and edited a web site design for the existing communications web site. This is needed to attract many hits and to enable the public and the media to obtain information with ease. I also wrote a few articles for both internal and external publications. Other work involved browsing the newspapers for county news and updates on epidemics for the county staff to keep them motivated in their service to people and updated of recent happenings in public health. I also helped in developing a live copy of antibiotic resistance PSAs and in distributing them to the media.

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