Methods of Communication in Health and Social Care

This document discusses the different methods of communication used in health and social care, such as verbal, non-verbal, written, and technological methods. It explores the strengths and weaknesses of formal and informal communication, as well as the principles of effective communication. The document also provides strategies to overcome barriers to communication in the health and social care environment.

HEALTH AND SOCIAL
CARE MANAGEMENT
1

Table of Contents
COMMUNICATION FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE........................................................3
Q1. Methods used to communicate in health and social care .....................................................3
Q2. List of all methods used to communicate in health and social care .....................................3
Q3. Strength and weakness of formal and informal communication methods ...........................4
Q4. Principles of effective communication ...............................................................................5
Q5. Ways by which barriers to communication will be overcomes. ..........................................6
Q6. Methods of communication in health and social care environment......................................7
Q7. Advantages and disadvantages of using technology in communication for an organization
in health and social care environment.........................................................................................8
Q 8: Advantages and disadvantages of technology in health and social care environment from
service user's perspective.............................................................................................................9
Q 9: Data protection issues and their impact on people and organization of health and social
care environment........................................................................................................................10
PROMOTING HEALTH IN THE POPULATION.......................................................................13
Q1: Process of developing public health policy and identification of potential groups that may
influence the policy....................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16
2

COMMUNICATION FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Q1. Methods used to communicate in health and social care
Health and social acre professional in their daily or working days makes use of various
methods for communication when they have to give or receive information, providing the
patients and staff with emotional support and also to their family members. In health and social
care sector there are various methods of communication which are as follows:
Verbal – It is communicating with patients or staff of heath and social care through use
of words to present the thoughts, ideas and feelings. The health and social care professional use
this type of communication to respond to questions, finding out about the problem and issues of
the patients, providing support to patients and their family members and also to staff working
there.
Non-verbal – It is communicating with patients or the staff of health and social care
through body language. It is very important form of communication as the health and social care
professionals are dealing with people who are in pain (Wijayanti, 2017). The non verbal
communication is in the form of facial expression, touch or contact, gestures, proximity, eye
contact.
Written – It is communicating with patients and other staff members in the form of
written format and is also formal. As health and social care sector have to keep various records
which are related to personal problems and diseases of the patients and also the records have to
be kept of the health and social care professionals.
Through technology – As the trends are changing and people are shifting from
traditional communication methods to communicating with technological aids. All the
information and details about the patients and health and social care professionals are kept in the
digital format. Technological aids such as electronic computers, videophones, websites, software
are used in health and social care to keep the records and also for other purpose.
Q2. List of all methods used to communicate in health and social care
As there is a training day in care home and all the methods used to communicate in health
and social care is to be listed. The following are the methods of communication:
Verbal communication – Verbal communication in care home uses words to
communicate and k now the feelings of the person and trying to understand what they want to
3

say. The person treating in care home must ensure that the tone of word used by them must be
polite and low.
Non verbal communication - There are various forms in which non-verbal form of
communication can take place such as:
Facial expression in which there is movement of face which sis used to express the feelings.
Touch or contact which includes physical touching and holding a person.
Gesture is also a type of non verbal communication in which hands are used deliberately to
express meaning.
The professional in health and social care sector also uses proximity for communicating with
their patients and staff. It involves physical closeness between people and during interactions.
Eye contact is also a methods of non-verbal communication which involves looking into the eyes
of the patients or the staff.
If any staff or health and social care professional have to communicate with people with
visual impairment or hearing impairment for these kind of people communication is done
through Braille, lip reading or sign language.
Q3. Strength and weakness of formal and informal communication methods
Formal communication
Flow of information through predefined channel or route and the information floated in this type
of method is controlled and deliberate efforts are required to communicate (Papadonikolaki,
Verbraeck. and Wamelink, 2017).
Strengths
 Communicating through formal method increases the efficiency of the management as all
the rules and procedures are followed properly.
 Better coordination of work is there in formal communication between different
departments and functions.
 The formal communication creates a sense of discipline in the minds of the staff and
professionals related to health and social care.
Weakness
4

 A lot of time is wasted and it is not applicable in the time of emergency as the
information and approvals has to be passed through various stages and levels (Felipe
Gómez. and Dailey, 2017).
 Also there is delay in decision-making and in health and social acre sector it is not good
to waste time in taking important decisions. This type of communication method is costly and inflexible as there are lot of formalities
which are to be met.
Informal communication
Informal communication is interaction or communication of the health care staff,
professionals or the patients in a casual manner or in unofficial manner (Bielenia‐Grajewska,
2017).
Strengths
 The presence of informal communication in the health and social acre sector improves
the relationship among all the people present in the health and social care sector.
 The patients, staff feel free to give suggestions and recommendation when there is
informal communication and also they freely discuss issues.
 With the presence of informal communication the efficiency of the management and in
the sector increases.
Weakness
 There is lack of secrecy in case of informal communication as everyone freely interacts
with each other and there is no restrictions on interactions between the members of health
and social care professional.
 As the informal communication does not have a formal set of lines to communicate
therefore there are chances of distortion of information.
 Also due to this informal communication a lot of misunderstanding may occur in health
and social care sector.
Q4. Principles of effective communication
Effective communication is the way of communicating, exchanging ideas, knowledge or
it can be said that it is presentation of views by the sender to the receiver in the way which is
better understood by the later.
5

Principles of clarity - The idea or message to be communicated should be clearly spelt
out (Prasad, 2020). It should be worded in such a way that the receiver understands the same
thing which the sender wants to convey.
Principles of attention - People are different in behaviour, attention, emotions etc. so
they may respond differently to the message. Subordinates should act similarly as per the
contents of the message.
Principles of timeliness - This principle states that communication should be done at
proper time so that it helps in implementing plans.
Principles of feedback - There should be a feedback information from the recipient to
know whether he has understood the message in the same sense in which the sender has meant it.
Principles of informality - Management should use informal communication for
assessing the reaction of employees towards various policies. Senior management may
informally convey certain decisions to the employees for getting their feedback.
Principles of adequacy - The information communicated should be adequate and
complete in all respects. Inadequate information may delay action and create confusion
(Zvaigzne. and et.al., 2020).
Principles of consistency - This principle states that communication should always be
consistent with the policies, plans, programmes and objectives of the organization and not in
conflict with them. If the messages and communications are in conflict with the policies and
programmes then there will be confusion in the minds of subordinates and they may not
implement them properly. Such a situation will be detrimental to the interests of the organization.
Q5. Ways by which barriers to communication will be overcomes.
There are various barrier to communication such as linguistic barriers, psychological
barriers, emotional barriers, physical barriers, cultural barriers. Barriers to communication can be
overcome by:
Clarify Ideas before Communication - The person sending the communication should
be very clear in his mind about what he wants to say (Okumus. and et.al., 2017). He should know
the objective of his message and, therefore, he should arrange his thoughts in a proper order.
6

Communicate According to the Need of the Receiver - The sender of the
communication should prepare the structure of the message not according to his own level or
ability but he should keep in mind the level, understanding or the environment of the receiver.
Be Aware of Language, Tone and Content of Message - The sender should take care of
the fact that the message should be framed in clear and beautiful language. The tone of the
message should not injure the feelings of the receiver. As far as possible the contents of the
message should be brief and excessive use of technical words should be avoided.
Proper feedback must be ensured - The purpose of feedback is to find out whether the
receiver has properly understood the meaning of the information received. In the face-to- face
communication, the reaction on the face of the receiver can be understood (Nipp, Hong. and
Paskett, 2019). But in case of written communication or some other sort of communications
some proper method of feedback should be adopted by the sender.
Becoming a good listener - It is the essence of communication that both the sender and
the receiver should be good listeners. Both should listen to the each other’s point of view with
attention, patience and positive attitude. A sender can receive much relevant information by
being a good listener.
Q6. Methods of communication in health and social care environment
There are various methods of communication in health and social care environment. Out of them
some are:
Inter-organizational communication:
It refers to sharing of information between one organization and other. It is very essential
that there should be appropriate communication link between different organization so that when
it is being required to detail the information then instead of going through long process easy and
fast communication can take place (Al-Busaidi, and Olfman, 2017). It can be executed through
the use of e-mails or through software. However it should be in formal sense. This means that
every information that is being shared will be in formal manner with appropriate written mode.
This mode of communication allows the different organization to be linked and associated with
each other.
Intra- organizational communication:
7

This is also a common mode of communication in health and social organization. Under
this form of communication different department of the organization will be connected through
an internal linked communication channel. This mode allows easy sharing of information
between different departments so that it will help in smooth flow of information along with
taking of fast decision. This is also performed in formal manner but information at same level
can also be shared informally.
E-mail:
Like inter-organizational communication, sharing of information through e-mails are also
a common mode. Under this mode information is not just shared between social and health care
organization but it also raises the speed of sharing information. It is one of the fastest mode of
sharing information. Language of this mode could either be formal or informal. However, it is
recommended that it should be kept formal while sharing official information.
Q7. Advantages and disadvantages of using technology in communication for an organization in
health and social care environment
Advantages of using technology in communication:
There are many advantages associated with use of technology in communication for those
organizations that belongs to social and health care environment. Use of technology in
communication will raise the speed of delivery of message, this means that message will
approach to receiver within a few seconds. In addition, of reducing time it also reduces cost of
sharing information in terms of transportation cost, delivery charges and many more. Sharing of
information through the use of technology will also increase the scope of communication. This
means that it can be shared from any place and anywhere around the world (Laitinen and Valo,
2018). Through the use of technology the mode of communication become easier because
without carrying any physical documents the service taker can access information and likewise
the service provider can give information in a much easier way. This will helps the organization
to share information in an efficient as well as easier manner.
Disadvantages of using technology in communication:
Though there are many advantages associated with the implementation of technology in
communication but at the same time there are some drawbacks too. When information is being
shared through the use of technology then the main disadvantages is the privacy concern. This
8

means that there are chances that the data will be lost or accessed for unauthorized purpose by
someone who hacks the system. Information associated with organizations belonging to
healthcare and social purpose usually contain private information of the service in taker. So any
small error while sharing of information through technological mode may lead to leakage of
private information of client. While using of technology in communication it is also observed
that people got more informal and as a result their grammar and spelling mistake may raises.
This leads to creation of poor vocabulary of the service user. Involvement of technology in
communication will also not said to be 100% reliable because with the along with raising cyber
crimes it is being manipulated by many a people.
Q 8: Advantages and disadvantages of technology in health and social care environment from
service user's perspective
Advantages:
There are lots of advantages that are being associated with the use of technology in the
field of health and social care. It saves the time of service user to visit the hospital or collecting
the information and updates regarding the health report of patient. Similarly, along with saving
time it is also helpful for saving the cost of user. Implementation of technology in the health
sector will make the user to be more connected with the concerned hospitals along with
monitoring and keeping the check over the health of the relative patient (Yamin, 2018). Use of
technology will give a direct and regular updates to user regarding the health service or health
issue with the concerned healthcare organization. Similarly, use of technology in the social
services will also saves a lot of time and cost of the user in serving and going again and again to
social organization. It would not be wrong to said that the use of technology will bring more
transparency and raises more communication in these sectors.
Disadvantages:
Along with all these advantages there are certain disadvantages of technology which may
affect the service user and its privacy. Since these sectors are concerned with the private and
personal information of the user so a small error in the technological system will severely affect
the user in terms of leaking of its private and personal information. This will make the
generalization of private information that will leads to occurrence of privacy issue for the service
user. Since technology bears lots of advantages but in order to get those advantages there is a
9

need of adequate rules and regulation along with continuous monitoring. Occurring of any small
technological error may either lead to lose of entire data and record that will not only affect the
organization but it will equally affect the user also.
Q 9: Data protection issues and their impact on people and organization of health and social care
environment
Data protection:
It refers to a process which ensures safeguarding of data from leakage or corruption. It is
very essential to protect the data or private data of people who share their information for
meeting specific reason. This can be understood as if a patient will go to hospital and provide
personal information about health and personal details (Terry, 2017). Then it is the duty of such
healthcare organization that proper measures will be taken by them so that the data and
information of the patient will be kept safe and secure.
However, while executing this process organization also faces various issue in the form
of resistance from client's side where patient will deny sharing their information as a result
hospitals face difficulties in getting those informations and meeting their responsibilities. On the
other hand people will also face issue in the form of trust. As they may face fear while sharing of
data they it will get public.
Apart from that there are many other issues that can occur regarding protection of data.
Along with occurrence of issues, these issues also have adverse impact over the people as well as
organizations too.
Issues and their impacts:
Data leakage:
It is also one of the major issue in terms of data protection. Since, every person will share
its information by giving trust and believing over the organization and in case if it will be leaked
by someone with fraudulent then it will severely impact over the people as well as organization.
This will leads to loosing of trust of people when they share their private information. Likewise,
the name of the organization from where such incident occurs will also get affected
(Abouelmehdi, Beni-Hessane and Khaloufi, 2018). In addition, of this if data will be leaked in
the internal organization then also it will affect the organization. This is because apart from
protecting data of customers it is also very essential that the data of the internal department of the
10

company will also be protected otherwise organization have to bear major impacts in the form of
leakage of private and confidential information.
Maintenance of privacy:
It becomes one of the issue if data is not being protected. This will lead to leak of private
information of customers and people. It has a great impact over people as well as organization
which belongs to health and social care environment. As the companies which belongs to these
sectors usually have private data of their patients, clients and customers. And if their data will
not be given dual protection and if it leaks then this will severely affect those organizations, in
terms of destroying their image in the market along with taking of legal actions against them
(Iyengar, Kundu and Pallis, 2018). Similarly, the person's whose data will not be protected will
also be affected due to this issue. That person's private information will got general which could
also an impact over its personal life too.
Raising cost:
It also becomes one of the major issue when cost for protecting the data will raise. This
means that while protecting data a lot of cost is being spent over. This will again have an impact
over people as well as organizations. This means that along with rising cost regarding protecting
the data the cost of operation of organization also raises. This has become major impact over
those organizations who belong to health and social service sectors (Lubis, Kartiwi and Zulhuda,
2017). It is because they have to spend a lot of funds in protecting the data of their customers.
Likewise, it will also affect general people because they also have to spend more in order ton
avail the services of protecting their data.
Increasing trend of wearable technology:
This is also a major issue for those organizations which are concerned with healthcare
sectors. This is because with the introduction and raising trends of wearable technology data
regarding patient are started to be monitored by these technologies. But the main issue is who is
going to secure that data. So with the introduction of these technologies healthcare organizations
are greatly affected. While on the other hand people who use such technology have positively
affected because now they don't need to dependent on healthcare organization in order to record
and maintain their data. It is being easy for them to monitor as well as record their own data.
Controlling issue:
11

Along with protection and securing of data, it makes the controlling process difficult for
the organization. As a number of patients and customer will daily get interacted with the
organization of health and social care sector, so it will lead to upcoming of lot of data for those
companies. This will creates controlling problems for the organization as it is very difficult to
control a lot of data along with securing it (Liu and Chen, 2019). Along with controlling it will
also create an issue of maintenance of data. As it is very difficult for the organization to maintain
such wider scale data which is being received by them on daily basis.
Compliance of regulations:
Protection of data is not just a short term. This means that apart from data protection
issue organization also face this issue in the form of compliance of various regulations and laws
made towards data protection. Any small loophole in the following of those principles may leads
to have a major impact over the organization in terms of trapping into legal actions.
Like the organization, people who are concerned with the data are also being equally affected in
the form of generalization of their personal information which could affect their personal life too.
So it would not be wrong to said that the violation of data protection and as a result of
that its associated issues will have equally affected both the organization and concerned people
whose data is being leaked and not protected.
12

PROMOTING HEALTH IN THE POPULATION
Q1: Process of developing public health policy and identification of potential groups that may
influence the policy.
Process of developing public health policy:
For the development of public health policy there are major eight steps that is required to be
followed. The eight steps are:
Determination of problem:
The very first step begin with the determination of problem in which the actual problem
related to health is being identified. This problem will act as a base upon which objectives
regarding the policy will be determined. While identifying the problem it is to be noted that what
is the cause of the problem, what would be its possible impacts and if there is any problem then
how it will be resolved.
Accessing readiness:
Under this step it is being analysed that whether it is the right time to proceed the policy
or not. Whether the community is ready to accept the policy, whether they will support the policy
or whether organization is having sufficient resources to begin the policy. Answers related to all
these type of questions will be answered in this step.
Development of goals, objectives and policy options:
As per this steps the clear goals and detailed objectives are being identified and marked.
While performing this step more than one goal will have to be marked along with a series of
policy option regarding the problem. These policy options will enables the achievement of goals
related to health issue.
Identification of decision makers and influencers:
Under this step appropriate stakeholder will be identified. It is to be noted that while
identifying the stakeholder they should be in reach. This means instead of looking towards the
higher authorities it is much better to choose the stakeholder from middle or lower level of
management including social workers and others (Azline, 2018). In addition, of this it is also
essential that these influencers will have adequate approach towards the media as well as other
groups and influential people.
Build support for the policy:
13

As per this step after determining the influencers and stakeholders it is very essential to
persuade them so that the policy will be proceeded and developed. Various approacher including
negotiation, letter-writing, information sharing will be used.
Draft the policy:
After performing all the above steps the next step involves the drafting of actual policy.
In this step every single element of the policy will be scheduled and executed. This means that
the structure of the policy will be decided in this step starting from determination of the purpose
of the policy, followed by regulations and provisions that will concerned with non-compliance of
rules. Planning regarding promotion of policy and monitoring and controlling policy all will be
structured in this step.
Implementation of policy:
After drafting the policy the nest step involves its implementation. Under this step the
made policy is being implemented among the society. While implementing the policy clear
communication will be made essential so that it will be executed in the actual in the actual
manner.
Evaluation and monitoring the policy:
The last and most important step of the public health policy is the monitoring and
evaluating. Under this step every single step is being monitored closely along with making
evaluation. Performance of this step will bring the desired outcome in the form of achievement
of goals and objective that was being marked regarding the issue.
Identification of potential group influencing public health policy:
There are various potential groups that can influence public health policy. Out of them some are:
International group:
It further includes various group that deals at global level. Among them World Health
Organization (WHO) is one of the important group that influence public health policy. Every
policy regarding the health of public has to be in consideration of WHO. This is the major group
that can influence the health policies in terms of making recommendation or corrections if any
concerning the original policies.
Pressure group:
14

These are the groups that have strong and wider connection with higher authorities. These
groups have strong pressure or influence towards the government too. They are the supporter of
public so it can influence as well as moult the government to have and build policies in the
interest of general public regarding their health (Allsop, 2018).
Government agencies:
These are those agencies of the government that are concerned with the health sector.
They also have a strong influence over the policies regarding public health. Since they are the
government agencies, so they make ensure that no organization would bring and modify the
policy that can affect the public and their health. Like government, they also ensure that there
should be a strong compliance of all the policies that is being concerned with public health.
Role of government in monitoring the health of nation:
Government plays a very important role in monitoring the health of nation. For
monitoring, it makes various rules and policies regarding the health sector of nation and it made
compulsory for every organization to have a compliance of these rules. This way government not
only monitor the health condition of nation but at the same time also guides the organization
while framing and implementing policies regarding health issues. In addition, of this by
conducting surveys, government can closely monitor the actual health condition of the nation.
Through survey, it can find out that what are the major health issues occurring in the nation,
which group of society is being majorly affected due to that issue and many more can be easily
identified through the method of survey (Den Broeder, 2018). In this way government will not
only play its role in the identification of issue but it can also monitor the actual health condition
of nation.
Likewise, government also perform need assessment by which it can determine the need of
people which they want in the nation. Through this assessment government can identify what are
the potential areas in which it has to work. By this method also government can monitor as well
as improve the health of the nation (Mcintyre, Meheus and Røttingen, 2017).
Like making of rules and regulations government also plays a major role in the
implementation of various health policies in the nation. By analysing or passing the policies
made by various organization's government in addition of monitoring also put its role in raising
the health condition of the nation.
15

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Abouelmehdi, K., Beni-Hessane, A. and Khaloufi, H., 2018. Big healthcare data: preserving
security and privacy. Journal of Big Data.5(1). pp.1-18.
Al-Busaidi, K.A. and Olfman, L., 2017. Knowledge sharing through inter-organizational
knowledge sharing systems. VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management
Systems.
Allsop, J., 2018. Health policy and the NHS: towards 2000. Routledge.
Azline, and et.al., 2018. Policy arena of health policy-making process in developing
countries. International Journal of Public Health and Clinical Sciences.5(3). pp.32-48.
Bielenia‐Grajewska, M., 2017. Informal Communication. The International Encyclopedia of
Organizational Communication, pp.1-15.
Den Broeder, and et.al., 2018. Citizen Science for public health. Health promotion
international.33(3). pp.505-514.
Felipe Gómez, L. and Dailey, S.L., 2017. Formal Communication. The International
Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication. pp.1-15.
Iyengar, A., Kundu, A. and Pallis, G., 2018. Healthcare informatics and privacy. IEEE Internet
Computing.22(2). pp.29-31.
Laitinen, K. and Valo, M., 2018. Meanings of communication technology in virtual team
meetings: Framing technology-related interaction. International Journal of Human-
Computer Studies.111. pp.12-22.
Liu, C. and Chen, H., 2019. Relative security of health care big data protection. Journal of
Zhejiang University (Medical Science).47(6). pp.563-576.
Lubis, M., Kartiwi, M. and Zulhuda, S., 2017. Privacy and personal data protection in electronic
voting: factors and measures. Telkomnika.15(1). pp.512-521.
Mcintyre, D., Meheus, F. and Røttingen, J.A., 2017. What level of domestic government health
expenditure should we aspire to for universal health coverage?. Health Economics,
Policy and Law.12(2). pp.125-137.
Nipp, R.D., Hong, K. and Paskett, E.D., 2019. Overcoming barriers to clinical trial
enrollment. American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book. 39. pp.105-114.
Okumus, F. and et.al., 2017. Identifying and overcoming barriers to deployment of information
technology projects in hotels. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Papadonikolaki, E., Verbraeck, A. and Wamelink, H., 2017. Formal and informal relations
within BIM-enabled supply chain partnerships. Construction management and
economics. 35(8-9). pp.531-552.
Prasad, L.M., 2020. Principles and practice of management. Sultan Chand & Sons.
Terry, N.P., 2017. Regulatory disruption and arbitrage in health-care data protection. Yale J.
Health Pol'y L. & Ethics.17. p.143.
Wijayanti, S.H., 2017, October. The Types of Communication Used in Workplace. In 4th Asia
Pacific Education Conference (AECON 2017) (pp. 224-229). Atlantis Press.
Yamin, M., 2018. IT applications in healthcare management: a survey. International Journal of
Information Technology.10(4). pp.503-509.
16

Zvaigzne, A. and et.al., 2020. PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE MENTORING
COMMUNICATION IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE RESULTS OF A SURVEY OF
EXPERTS. ECONOMIC SCIENCE FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT 2020. p.260.
17