ACVPM Public Health Administration and Education Practice Exam

In crisis communication, the maintenance phase is when you actively keep the public informed as the situation unfolds. This stage emphasizes rapid, ongoing communication with the audience, showing empathy and concern to maintain trust, giving clear public actions people can take to reduce harm, offering a general description of what occurred and what to expect, and directing people to where they can find updated information. These elements help manage the crisis in real-time and guide behavior as the event evolves.

This isn’t the pre-crisis phase, which focuses on preparation and risk mitigation before an incident; nor the initial event phase, which centers on the first, fast alerts rather than sustained guidance; nor the resolution phase, which comes after the event to summarize outcomes and lessons learned.