Public Health Messages Help

Requester Information:

• Enter the requestor’s name, role, organization, and contact information (work phone, primary cell phone, email address/NJLINCS and email address/other). For those requestors with NJLINCS email accounts, this information will be provided for you. Verify that the requester information is correct, and revise as needed.
• Enter the name and work phone of the DHSS Supervisor (Program Manager, Director, Senior Staff) authorizing the distribution of this message. For non DHSS requestors, the message must be approved by the designated DHSS sponsor.
• Asterisks (*) indicate required fields.

Point of Contact:

• Enter the point of contact’s name, role, organization, and contact information (work phone, primary cell phone, and primary email address). This information will appear in the body of the public health message as the point of contact for those individuals in need of more information. Verify contact information to ensure complete accuracy.
• Asterisks (*) indicate required fields.

Target Audience:

• Read more about Target Audiences in the State and Local Partners and Categories document.

Source:

• Select the origin of the message. If the source of the message is not provided, select “Other” and enter the appropriate message source.
• A source must be selected.

Category and Priority Level:

• Select the appropriate message category (alert, advisory, update and info) and priority level (high, medium and normal) using the reference chart below. The HAN application automatically defaults to the priority level associated with the message category selected. Under special circumstances, you may manually select a different priority level. For example, time sensitive “Public Health Information” may be distributed with a high priority level.
• A category and priority level must be selected.

Priority Level	Category	Distribution Time Frame	Definition	Examples
High	Public Health Alert	Within 1 hour of receipt	high priority and/or time sensitive public health information or data potential or actual public health threat usually affects large number of individuals requires immediate action or attention	DHSS Alerts CDC Alerts
Medium	Public Health Advisory	Within 3 hours of receipt	important public health information or data potential public health threat may or may not require immediate action or attention	DHSS Advisories CDC Advisories
Medium	Public Health Update	Within 3 hours of receipt	important public health information or data updates potential public health threat may or may not require immediate action or attention	DHSS Updates CDC Updates
Normal	Public Health Information	Within 1 (working) day of receipt	standard or routine public health information or data usually affects small number of individuals unlikely to require immediate action or attention	Training/Meetings Announcements Fact Sheets Newsletters Protocols Surveys Guidelines CDC HAN Info Service Messages Regional HAN Messages-other states

Subject:

• Enter a brief title to describe the message content.
• When the message is distributed, the message category will automatically precede the title.

Message Text:

• Enter the text of the message. Text can be copied and pasted from another document. Review text for spelling, accuracy and grammar.

Attachments:

• Check the box to include an attachment with the public health message.
• Attachments are not added at this moment. Once the “Submit” button is selected at the bottom of the page and “Continue” selected, the attachment will be added.
• The size of the entire Public Health Message cannot exceed 10MB; therefore, the total size of all attachments included in the message cannot exceed 9MB.
• Attachments should be used only when absolutely necessary. Place text in the message body whenever possible.

Message Access:

• Public: Available to anyone with Internet access; non-password protected
• Private: Restricted to all members of the NJLINCS Community (DHSS, LINCS and local health staff with a NJLINCS email account); password protected.
• Confidential: Not posted to the message archive.

Verification:

• Use the RECAPTCHA control to verify that the request came from a human.