This book explores the unique contribution that critical communication studies can bring to our understanding of health. It covers several broad themes: representing and mediating health; marketing and promoting health, co-producing health; and managing health crises and risks. Chapters speak to moral and social regulation through health communication, technologies of health, healthism and governmentality. They engage with historical and contemporary issues, offering readers theoretically grounded perspectives. At base, the book explores what a critical communication approach to health might look like, revealing in important—and sometimes surprising—ways how communication sits at the centre of understanding how health is constructed, contested, and made meaningful.
How and why the idea of wellness holds such rhetorical—and harmful—power. In Why Wellness Sells, Colleen Derkatch examines why the concept of wellness holds such rhetorical power in contemporary culture. Public interest in wellness is driven by two opposing philosophies of health that cycle into and amplify each other: restoration, where people use natural health products to restore themselves to prior states of wellness; and enhancement, where people strive for maximum wellness by optimizing their body's systems and functions. Why Wellness Sells tracks the tension between these two ideas of wellness across a variety of sources, including interviews, popular and social media, advertising, and online activism. Derkatch examines how wellness manifests across multiple domains, where being "well" means different things, ranging from a state of pre-illness to an empowered act of good consumer-citizenship, from physical or moral purification to sustenance and care, and from harm reduction to optimization. Along the way, Derkatch demonstrates that the idea of wellness may promise access to the good life, but it serves primarily as a strategy for coping with a devastating and overwhelming present. Drawing on scholarship in the rhetoric of health and medicine, the health and medical humanities, and related fields, Derkatch offers a nuanced account of how language, belief, behavior, experience, and persuasion collide to produce and promote wellness, one of the most compelling—and harmful—concepts that govern contemporary Western life. She explains that wellness has become so pervasive in the United States and Canada because it is an ever-moving, and thus unachievable, goal. The concept of wellness entrenches an individualist model of health as a personal responsibility, when collectivist approaches would more readily serve the health and well-being of whole populations.
Communication in Health Organizations explores the communication processes, issues, and concepts that comprise the organization of health care, focusing on the interactions that influence the lives of patients, health professionals, and other members of health institutions. This book integrates scholarship from communication, medicine, nursing, public health, and allied health, to provide a comprehensive review of the research literature. The author explains the complexities and contingencies of communication in health settings using systems theory, an approach that enhances reader understanding of health organizing. The reader will gain greater familiarity with how health institutions function communicatively, and why the people who work in health professions interact as they do. The text provides multiple opportunities to analyze communication occurring in health organizations and to apply communication skills to personal experiences. This knowledge may improve communication between patients, employees, or consumers. Understanding and applying the concepts discussed in this book can enhance communication in health organizations, which ultimately benefits health care delivery. Communication in Health Organizations offers students, researchers, and health practitioners a unique multi-disciplinary perspective that invites stimulating reflection, discussion, and application of communication issues affecting today's health system.
Promotes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of health communication According to the Joint Commission, over 75% of all serious medical errors in this country result from miscommunication. Based in these adverse realities and the author philosophy that communication is a clinical skill integral to effective health care delivery, this comprehensive text addresses thetheories and abilities needed by all health care providers. The only text written specifically for students of nursing, medicine, physical therapy,pharmacy, dentistry, physician assistants and opticians, this book incorporates recommendations for specific multimedia, suggestions for class discussion and interactive case studies to provide a rich and multi-perspective learning experience for gaining optimal expertise in effective health communication The author underscores the importance of developing and maintaining successful relationships with patients, peers, and colleagues as a cornerstone ofeffective health care outcomes. With an emphasis on interactive learning, the text utilizescommunication theories to analyze verbal and non-verbalbehaviors in diverse health care contexts and assess which are more effective and why. Summaries at the end of each chapter discuss health communicationoutcomes. Chapters cover interpersonal and gendered communication, provider-patient communication, intercultural communication, organizationalcommunication, team communication, malpractice, palliative care, end-of-life communication, and many other topics. Key Features: Fosters a patient-centered, interdisciplinary, multidimensional learning experience for health care students Recommends experiential learning using videos, films, and related discussion exercises Presents case study role-plays Provides companion case study resource to enhance learning objectives
Organizations, Communication, and Health focuses on theories and constructs of organizational communication and their relationship to health. The goal of the volume is to offer a current picture of organizational and organizing processes and practices related to health. Research in the area of health communication has expanded in recent years, and this research has advanced understandings of campaigns, patient/provider interactions, and social support. However, a gap in the area of health, organizations, and organizing processes emerged, a niche this volume fills. It does so by having chapters identify an organizational theory or organizing process and how aspects of that theory relate to health. Chapters discuss how to marry theory to practice and the other factors (e.g., organizational structure, role, occupation, industry, or environment) that need to be considered in the process of utilizing the theory in organizations. This volume, aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying health communication, as well as health professionals, provides useful theory and practice related the organizations and health, and issues a call for further theorizing on the practice of health communication in organizations.
Communicating Mental Health: History, Contexts, and Perspectives explores mental health through the lens of the communication discipline. In the first section, contributors describe the major contributions of the communication discipline as it pertains to a broader perspective and stigma of mental health. In the second section, contributors investigate mental health through various narrative perspectives. In the third and fourth sections, contributors consider many applied contexts such as media, education, and family. At the conclusion, contributors discuss the ways in which future inquiries regarding mental health in the communication discipline can be investigated. Scholars of health communication, mental health, psychology, history, and sociology will find this volume particularly useful.
Health Communication: From Theory to Practice is a much needed resource for the fast-growing field of health communication. It combines a comprehensive introduction to current issues, theories, and special topics in health communication with a hands-on guide to program development and implementation. While the book is designed for students, professionals and organizations with no significant field experience, it also includes advanced topics for health communication practitioners, public health experts, researchers, and health care providers with an interest in this field.
Discusses key principles relative to specific steps in health communications program development, and includes examples of their use. Covers: planning and strategy selection, selecting channels and materials, developing materials and pretesting (pretesting -- what it can and cannot do, pretesting methods, plan and conduct pretests), implementing your program, assessing effectiveness, feedback to refine program and more. Each chapter includes a 3selected readings2 section. Includes: information sources, sample forms, glossary, bibliography, etc. Photos and drawings.
- NEW! Chapter devoted to cross-cultural communication promotes understanding of care in a diverse workplace - NEW! Chapter on diseases and disorders discusses communication with patients experiencing specific physical and mental illnesses and disorders. - NEW and UNIQUE! Words at Work dialogue boxes demonstrate actual conversations between healthcare workers and clients. - UPDATED! Content reflects the most current communication tools for the modern healthcare setting. - NEW! Full-color design and art program promote engagement. - NEW and UNIQUE! Communication Guidelines boxes direct you to best practices for the effective exchange of information. - NEW! Additional Taking the Chapter to Work case studies demonstrate real-life communication pitfalls and successes.
