Health communication for PSU

1. Health communication for PSU 23-27 August 2010

2. Contents • Toronto consensus statement • Basic communication theories • Participatory & persuasive communication • Planning & evaluation of communication for health • New media and health

3. Does not include • Crisis communication, i.e, disasters, emergencies, civil war, terrorism • Negotiations • Intrapersonal communication • Patient-doctor communication in clinical setting • Professional communication

4. Contents • Communication • Typology intra inter group mass • Intro definitions importance • Theories

5. Toronto consensus • Com problems are important & common • Patient anxiety & dissatisfaction are related to uncertainty and lack of information, explanation and feedback • Doctors often misperceive the amount and type of information that patients want to receive • Improved quality of clinical communication is related to positive health outcomes • Explaining and understand patient concerns, even when they cannot be resolved, results in a fall in anxiety

6. Toronto consensus • Greater participation by the patient in the encounter improves satisfaction, compliance and treatment outcomes • The psychological distress in patients with serious illness id less when they perceive themselves to have received adequate information • Beneficial clinical communication is routine possible in clinical practice and can be achieved during normal clinical encounter, without unduly prolonging them, provided that the clinician has learned the relevant techniques

10. Relative differences in skills based literacy • Functional literacy = • basic skills in reading and writing, capacity to apply these skills in everyday situation • Communicative/interactive literacy = • more advance cognitive and literacy skills, greater ability obtain relevant information, derive meaning, and apply new information to changing circumstances • Critical literacy= • most advance cognitive and literacy skills, critical analysis of information, ability to use information to response, adapt and control life events and situations

11. Health literacy • WHO: (Health promotion glossary, 1998) • the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information for health in ways which promote and maintain good health • by improving people’s access health information and their capacity to use it effectively, health literacy is seen as critical to personal empowerment • Nubeam (1999): • The ability to access, understand and use information for health • Content specific literacy in a health context • Even where a person has advanced literacy skills their ability to obtain, understand and apply health information in a specific health context may be poor