Communicating Health

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.

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.

An ideal combination of communication theory and practical advice, Communicating About Health: Current Issues and Perspectives, Fourth Edition, is an indispensable resource for readers looking to improve their communication abilities in the health care field. Written by Athena du Pr�--an experienced researcher and noted scholar--the text offers an excellent balance of theory and practice; research and pedagogy; coverage of patient/caregiver issues; and material on the current, historical, and philosophical backgrounds of communication in health care. In addition to enhancing features found in the previous edition, this new edition includes a greater emphasis on theory, narrative, and technology in order to reflect changes in the health industry. What's New to the Fourth Edition? * A new chapter--eHealth, mHealth, and Telemedicine--describes the global impact of smartphone and tablet technology, tailored health messages, and the Internet on the health industry * A new chapter, Health Care Administration, Human Resources, Marketing, and PR, provides in-depth coverage of the contributions and communication strategies involved in leadership, morale, service excellence, community engagement, and more * An expanded discussion of communication not only involves physicians and nurses but also pharmacists, allied health personnel, dentists, therapists, and others * New features--Can You Guess?, What Do You Think?, Check It Out!, and In Your Experience--offer a higher level of engagement with students and stimulate critical thinking and discussion Support Package (contact your Oxford sales representative or call 800-280-0280 to request these resources) * An interactive website, known as a Prezi, is available for each chapter at www.oup.com/us/dupre and includes videos, activities, discussion questions, key points, and more. Suitable for use in class or online. * An Instructor's Manual and Test Bank, available both in print and online at www.oup.com/us/dupre, features sample syllabi, test questions, self-assessment activities, background reading, and more.

As the first of its kind, this book provides a comprehensive approach to help public health practitioners in both the public and private sector to improve their ability to communicate with different audiences. From the news media to legislators, and from visual communication to electronic communication, every chapter provides practical, With real-world recommendations and examples on how to communicate public health information to nonscientific audiences more effectively. The knowledge and skills gleaned from this book will assist with planning and executing simple and complex communication activities commonly done by public health practitioners. "In order to compete in this increasingly competitive and complex environment, those of us in public health must make the science and art of communication as integral a part of our everyday activities as the science of epidemiology and disease control.

Full of practical advice, this book bridges the gap between communication theory and the implementation of policy. Responding to recent developments in health communication and campaigns, it is essential reading for all students and health care professionals who wish to reflect upon and develop their practice.

This text provides a research-based thorough overview of health communication, balancing theory with practical advice and examples that encourage students to further develop their own communication skills. In a broad survey of the field, approached from the perspectives of both caregiver and patient, it offers solid coverage of the history of health care, an examination of culture’s role in health and healing, and a look at current issues and challenges facing health care. The new edition includes expanded coverage of diversity among patients and of the impact of technology on health care communication today.

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

The Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Population Health Improvement brings together individuals and organizations that represent different sectors in a dialogue about what is needed to improve population health. On September 22, 2014, the roundtable held a workshop to discuss some of the science of health communication, audiences, and messaging, and to explore what it will take to generate widespread awareness, acceptance, and action to improve health, including through the entertainment media, the news media, and social media. This report summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.