Health Communication
Richard K. Thomas
Health Communication
Richard K. Thomas rthomas5@midsouth.rr.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2005927078 ISBN-10: 0-387-26115-X e-ISBN: 0-387-26116-8 ISBN-13: 978-0387-26115-7
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Preface
During the last years of the 20th century health professionals devel- oped a growing appreciation of the critical role that communication plays in healthcare. The communication of information among the various players in healthcare has always been taken as a given. Like many common phenomenon, however, the nuances and unspoken interaction may have serious implications for the communication process. Examples of the piv- otal role of communication in healthcare are everywhere—communication between doctors (and other clinicians) and patients, between health educa- tors and their clients, between pharmaceutical companies and consumers, between parents and children.
Just as important as the positive contribution that communication can make to healthcare has been the realization of the negative impact that ineffective communication can have within the healthcare arena. We only have to note the contribution of poor communication to malpractice suits, misdiagnoses, failures in patient compliance, and cross-cultural misunder- standings to see the role that communication plays.
Many of the challenges facing healthcare today, in fact, reflect fail- ures in communication. The headlines are full of stories related to medical errors, patient confidentiality, patient compliance, and other concerns re- lated to the delivery of care. The common theme running through these headline-grabbing issues is communication.
Given these circumstances, there has never been a better time to ad- dress the issue of health communication. It is a time when the importance of health communication is being recognized, when the role of health com- munication is expanding, and when the implications of effective (or inef- fective) communication are becoming more significant.
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There is no question that the need for stepped up efforts in the area of health communication is growing in all areas. Fortunately, the resources available for improving health communication are increasing as well. The base of knowledge—that which is being communicated—has increased ex- ponentially over the past few years. Health professionals now know what to tell people in most instances. The body of research on what is effective and what is not has grown dramatically and health professionals are ben- efiting from advances in communication theory. The number and range of available communication techniques have greatly expanded, providing the health communicator with an unprecedented armamentarium of ap- proaches to use. The dramatic impact of the Internet on our everyday lives has also ushered in an age of opportunity for those who seek to commu- nicate health-related messages to both the general public and to narrowly targeted audiences.
The revival of interest in traditional systems of healing has also fur- thered the interest in health communication. The movement toward inte- grated health systems that take a holistic approach to the patient empha- sizes the importance of communication between healers and their clients.
The critical role of therapeutic communication that formed the basis for treatment within traditional systems has been rediscovered and the health communication process is increasingly being recognized as more than a technical aspect of care but as a component of the therapy process in its own right.
This renewed interest is also reflected in recent funding initiatives on the part of federal agencies. Driven by concerns over issues like access to care, disparities in treatment, and increasing patient dissatisfaction, nu- merous federal programs now include research on health communication among their priorities.
Ultimately, this book hopes to ride the wave of optimism with regard to the role health communication can play in improving the health status of individuals and communities. This author’s presentation in the early 1980s about the imminent ascendancy of health communication in the field turned out to be premature. But today the knowledge, acceptance and tools necessary for the promotion of health communication are all in place.
University of Tennessee Richard K. Thomas
Health Science Center May 2005
Contents
1. Introduction to Health Communication ... 1
2. The Changing Sociocultural Context ... 9
3. The Changing Healthcare Context... 21
4. The History of Health Communication ... 39
5. Health Communication Audiences... 47
6. Understanding Health Behavior... 65
7. Understanding Communication... 85
8. Steps in the Health Communication Process... 103
9. Traditional Approaches to Health Communication... 119
10. Contemporary Approaches to Health Communication... 133
11. Case Studies in Health Communication ... 149
12. Evaluating the Impact of Health Communication... 167
13. The Future of Health Communication ... 179
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Bibliography ... 187 Glossary ... 191 Index ... 211
