Meant for Medical students

1. Communication
for
Health Education
Dr. Benny P V
Professor & HOD
Department of Community Medicine
Sree Gokulam Medical College

2. Communication
• Communication is giving, receiving or
exchanging ideas, information, signals
or messages through appropriate
media, enabling individuals or groups to
persuade, to seek information, to give
information or to express emotions

3. Communication
• Can be regarded as the
two-way process of
exchanging or shaping
ideas
• It is more than mere
exchange of information
• It is a process necessary
to pave way for desired
change in human
behaviour

4. Goal of Communication
• Ultimate goal of all communication is to
bring about a change in the desired
direction of the person who receives the
communication
• At different level
• Cognitive level (increasing
knowledge)
• Affective (changing existing pattern
of behaviour and attitude)
• Psychomotor (acquiring new skills)

5. • Speaking
• Writing
• Listening
• Reading and
• Reasoning

6. The Communication
Process
• Communications is a
continuous process
which mainly involves
three major elements
• Sender
• Message, and
• Receiver

7. Sender (communicator)
• Is the originator of the message
• For effective communication, he must
know
• His objectives (clearly defined)
• His audience (its interest and needs
his message)
• Channels of communication
• The impact of message will depend on
his social status (authority), knowledge
and prestige

8. Receiver • May be single person or a group of
people
• The audience may be of two types
• Controlled
• Held together by common
interest
• Uncontrolled
• Gathered together from
motives of curiosity
• More homogenous is the audience
- Effective

9. Message • May be in the form of words, pictures or
signs
• A good message must be:
• In line with objectives
• Meaningful
• Based on felt needs
• Clear and understanding
• Specific and accurate
• Timely and adequate
• Fitting the audience
• Interesting
• Culturally and socially appropriate

10. Transmitting the right message
to the right people at the right
time is successful
communication

11. Encoding
• The message generated by the sender is
encoded symbolically such as in the form of
words, pictures, gestures, etc. before it is
being conveyed

12. Media • It is the manner in which the encoded
message is transmitted
• The message may be transmitted orally
or in writing
• The medium of communication includes
telephone, internet, post, fax, e-mail, etc.
• The choice of medium is decided by the
sender

13. Decoding
• It is the process of
converting the symbols
encoded by the sender
• After decoding the message
is received by the receiver

14. Channels of communication
• The “physiological bridge” or the media of communication
• Total communication effort is based on 3 media system
• Interpersonal communication
• Mass media
• Traditional or folk media

15. Feedback
• Flow of information from the
audience to the sender
• It is the reaction of audience to
the message
• The feedback provide an
opportunity to the sender to
modify his message

16. Noise
• It refers to any obstruction that is caused
by the sender, message or receiver during
the process of communication
• For example, bad telephone connection,
faulty encoding, faulty decoding,
inattentive receiver, poor understanding of
message due to prejudice or inappropriate
gestures, etc.

17. • One-way communication
• Two-way communication
• Verbal communication
• Non-verbal communication
• Formal and informal
communication
• Visual communication
• Telecommunication and
internet

18. One-way communication
(didactic method)
• From the communicator to
audience
• For example, Lecture method
in classrooms- Here
• The knowledge is imposed
• Learning is authoritative
• Little audience
participation
• No feedback

19. Two-way communication
(Socratic method)
• Communicator and audience
take part
• The process of learning is
active and “democratic”
• It is more likely to influence
behaviour

20. Verbal
communication
• Word of mouth

21. Non-verbal communication
• Communication can occur even
without words
• Include whole range of body
movements, postures, gestures
• Facial expression (smile, raised
eyebrows, staring)
• Silence is non-verbal
communication (speak louder
than words)

22. Barriers of
Communication
• Physiological
• Difficulties in hearing, expression
• Psychological
• Emotional disturbances, neurosis,
levels of intelligence, language and
comprehension difficulties
• Environmental
• Noise, invisibility, congestion
• Cultural
• Illiteracy, customs, levels of
knowledge and understanding,
• Beliefs, religion, attitudes

23. Health
communication
(Health education)
• A process aimed at
encouraging people to want
to be healthy, to know how
to stay healthy, to do what
they can individually and
collectively to maintain
health and to seek help when
needed.”

24. Functions of Health
Communication
• Information
• Education
• Motivation
• Persuasion
• Counseling
• Raising morals
• Health development
• Health organization

25. Changing concept
of health
education
• Prevention of disease to
promotion of healthy lifestyles
• The modification individual
behaviour to modification of
“social environment” in which the
individual lives
• Community participation to
community involvement
• Promotion of individual and
community “self reliance”

26. Aims and objectives
To encourage people to adopt and sustain health promoting lifestyle
and practices
To promote proper use of health services available to them
To arose interest, provide new knowledge, improve skills and change
attitudes in making rational decision to solve their own problems

27. Approach to Health Education
Regulatory
approach
(Managed
prevention)
Service
approach
Health
education
approach
Primary
health care
approach

28. Models of Health Education
• Medical model
• Motivational model
• Social interventional model

29. Medical model
• Recognition and treatment
of diseases
• It is concerned with disease
• The assumption was that
people would act on the
information supplied by
health professional to
improve their health

30. Motivational model
• Motivation is the main force to translate health information in to desired
action
• Three stages in the process of changing the behaviour
• Awareness (interest)
• Motivation (evaluation, decision making)
• Action (adoption or acceptance)

31. Internalization
• New ideas or acquired
behaviour which becomes
part of a persons own
existing values

32. Social interventional model
• Social environment which shapes the behaviour of individual and the
community should be changed
• People will not readily accept and try something new or novel until it
has been approved by the group to which they belong

33. Contents Health Education
• Most of the needed information must be integrated into the
educational system
• Human biology
• Nutrition
• Hygiene
• Family health
• Disease prevention and control
• Mental health
• Prevention accidents
• Use of health services

34. Practice of
Health
Education
Audio Visual Aids
Auditory aids
Visual aids – Not requiring projection
and requiring projection
Combined A V aids

35. Methods of
Health
Education
Individual approach
Group approach
Mass approach
Personal contact
Home visits
Personal letters
Lectures
Demonstration

36. Methods of
discussion
Group discussion
Panel discussion
Symposium
Workshop
Conference
Seminar
Role Play

37. Group
Discussion
• Aggregation of people interacting in a face to face situation
• For effective group discussion
• Should comprise not < 6 & not > 12 members, Seated in a circle, Each
is fully visible to others
• Group leader
• Initiate the subject, Helps discussion in proper manner
• Prevents side conversations, Encourages everyone to participate, Sums
up the discussion in the end
• Desirable to have a person to record

38. Group
discussion
• Considered very effective in health communication
• The group may arrive at decisions which no individual
would have been able to make alone
• Decision taken by the group tends to adopted by each
individual rather than a solitary one

39. Group
discussion
• Limitations
• Those shy may not take part in discussions
• Some may dominate the discussion
• Some may deviate from the subject and make the
discussion irrelevant or unprofitable

40. Focus Group
Discussion (FGD)
• Involves gathering people from similar backgrounds or experiences together to discuss a
specific topic of interest
• It is a form of qualitative research where questions are asked about their perceptions
attitudes, beliefs, opinion or ideas
• Participants are free to talk with other group members
• FGD encourages discussions with other participants
• FGD generally involves group interviewing in which a small group of usually 8 to 12 people
are involved
• It is led by a moderator (interviewer) in a loosely structured discussion of various topics of
interest and includes a note

41. Panel discussion
• 4- 8 persons, qualified to talk about the topic, sit & discuss a
given problem
• In front of a large group or audience
• Panel comprises of a chairman & 4 – 8 speakers
• No specific agenda, no order of speaking & no set of speech
• Success of the panel depends upon the chairman
• After the main aspects of the subjects are explored by panel
speakers, the audience is invited to take part

42. Symposium
• Series of speeches on a selected subject
• Each expert presents an aspect of the subject briefly
• No discussion among the symposium members
• Audience may raise questions in the end Chairman
makes a comprehensive summary at the end of the
entire session

43. Workshop
• Consists of a series of meetings, usually 4 or more
• Emphasis on individual work, within the group, with
the help of consultants or resource personnel
• Provides each participant opportunities to improve
his effectiveness as a professional worker

44. Role play (Social
drama)
• Many values in a situation cannot be expressed in words
• Communication can be more effective if the situation is
dramatised by the group
• Size of the group is best thought to be at about 25
• Role playing is useful technique to use in providing
discussion of problems of human relationship
• Particularly useful educational advice for school children
• Role playing is followed by discussion of the problem

45. Conferences &
Seminars
• Contains a large component of commercialized
continuing education
• Usually held on a regional, state or national level
• Range from once half day to one week in length
• May cover a single topic in depth or be broadly
comprehensive
• Usually use variety of formats to aid the learning process

46. Thank you