Communication Skills in Healthcare

This report discusses the concept of communication skills and processes in healthcare, focusing on the case study of a 57-year old Maori woman. It explores barriers to communication in New Zealand healthcare and strategies to overcome them. It also examines stigma related to mental illness in healthcare settings and the skills required by mental health support workers to recognize and address discriminatory behavior. Additionally, it discusses the role of education in reducing stigma and discrimination against mental health and addiction clients.

Running Head: HEALTHCARE
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Communication Skills
7/6/2019

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Task 1:...................................................................................................................................................2
1.1. Communication process and the four elements applicable in healthcare..............................2
1.2 Three barriers to communication in context to New Zealand health care....................................3
1.3 Strategies to overcome barriers to effective communication in the New Zealand healthcare
system may include number of aspects..............................................................................................3
Task 2:...................................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Examples of stigma related to mental illness commonly seen in New Zealand health care
settings...............................................................................................................................................4
2.2. Skills required by mental health support worker to recognize stigmatizing and discriminatory
behaviour against mental health clients.............................................................................................5
2.3. Role of education to reduce stigma and discrimination against Mental Health and Addiction
clients................................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The report brings about the discussion on the concept of communication skills and
processes and their role in context to the health issues. In every organisation, there is an
important role of the communication. Healthcare communication is vital for sharing or
exchange of the information, i.e. amongst the professional and patient. The assignment brings
about the discussion of these aspects in context to the given case study of a Amelia Nepia, a
57-year old Maori woman. Two tasks are provided in the assignment, which includes
different concepts related to communication, and the literature on the study of mental health
problems. The discussion will also analyse the ways to respond to the attitudes and of people
towards the mental health problems and others. Therefore, the given two tasks will be
answered, and readers will understand the skills required by a mental health support worker.
In the later part, the report will mention the contribution of education for reducing the issue
of stigma and discrimination.
Task 1:
1.1. Communication process and the four elements applicable in healthcare
Communication is understood to be an important tool to provide great patient care,
and lead an improvement in the satisfaction levels of patients. In context to healthcare
settings, effective communication between the doctor and patient, determine treatment, and
prompt recovery in the patient’s health.
Communication is a two-way process, which involves the exchange of information,
ideas, and thoughts between two or more persons. It is a dynamic process, including the role
of a sender, medium, receiver, and the message itself (Loganathan & Varghese, 2019).
Key elements of the communication process include the sender, message, channel, and
receiver, and feedback. The sender is the individual who generate and transmits the message
to the receiver, and recognised as one initiating the communication. Encoding is one of the
major aspects that the sender must emphasize, that means translating the message into forms
of symbols (Reid et al., 2015).

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Message is the stimulus sent by the sender, and may be in the verbal, non-verbal,
written, or other forms. The channel is another major element in the process through which
the message is transmitted, and it might include reports, letters, mails, telephone as the
channel for transmission of message. Receiver, is the person who actually receives the
message, and the act of receiving the information is usually influenced by complex
psychological, physiological and cognitive processes.
Feedback is the information received by the sender, as a reaction from the receiver,
which is essential as it informs the perception or satisfaction of the receiver.
In context to the above case study, the sender i.e. the GP of the patient, i.e. Nepia was
instructed to stop smoking, as it may affect her health badly. She was unable to communicate
or speak properly, due to unexpected cough and shortness of breathing, and this led to
negative aspect of communication. The feedback or reaction of the patient was not
satisfactory, as she want to get rid of her cough, but not willing to quit smoking. This
described ineffectiveness of the communication process, as she responded negatively to the
information or instructions given by her physician (Vermeir et al., 2015).
1.2 Three barriers to communication in context to New Zealand health care
Communication is vital for positive health outcomes, in healthcare but it involves
number of barriers, such as shortage of nurses, workload, and unwillingness to communicate.
In New Zealand healthcare, nurses faced the burden of workload which created a problem in
communicating with the professionals. Shortage of nurses affects the efficiency of the
workers and increases their workload in the healthcare. As being overloaded with the work,
diminishes their quality of relationship and communication with their health experts. More
often, nurses are unwilling to communicate properly with their superiors or senior nurses and
this affects the overall productivity. Language barriers are observed at a high rate affecting
the quality of communication between the nurse and patients, within NZ healthcare (Ma,
Chan & Loke, 2017).
1.3 Strategies to overcome barriers to effective communication in the New
Zealand healthcare system may include number of aspects.

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A number of ways or strategies to overcome barriers to effective communication in
the New Zealand healthcare system may include number of aspects. Recruitment of
competent healthcare staff: This is an important strategy to be implemented in the NZ
healthcare, as it will reduce the problem of shortage of nurse staff. The healthcare officials
must hire including people from different cultural and social backgrounds which will also
eliminate the language differences.
Introducing high technologies and work systems will eventually resolve the issue of
workload on the healthcare staff, especially nurses is one of the strategies to deal with this
barrier. Third strategy may consist of the training and development programmes conducted in
the organisation, to encourage participation of the nurse staff in the attainment of their goals.
This will enhance their willingness and develop positive attitude towards communicating
their issues and other necessary information related to work (Thomson et al., 2015).
Task 2:
2.1 Examples of stigma related to mental illness commonly seen in New
Zealand health care settings
Stigma in context to healthcare refers to powerful social process of undermining
individuals on the basis of a real or assumed difference, and the basis may include gender,
age, sexual orientation, behaviour and ethnicity. The role of stigma in respect to the mental
healthcare, usually leads to negative results i.e. it diminishes the level of self-esteem and
deprives them of social and economic opportunities, affecting their overall wellbeing. Social
housing, poor housing and unemployment are some of the common aspects linked to mental
health of individuals in New Zealand healthcare. Therefore, stigma of mental illness and
discrimination traps people in cycle of mental illness (Knaak, Mantler & Szeto, 2017)
For an example, minority ethnic groups in New Zealand generally encounter the
problem of discrimination, and rejection from their society members, i.e. determining stigma
of mental illness (Flores, Hatzenbuehler & Gates, 2018).
Second example, that has been observed in the New Zealand include abuse or
harassment to the people experiencing any kind of mental illness. Lack of opportunities and

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development, out of discrimination and inaccessibility to basic health services for people
living in New Zealand, is the consequence of the stigma of mental illness, is other crucial
example (Shrivastava, De Sousa & Lodha, 2018).
2.2. Skills required by mental health support worker to recognize stigmatizing
and discriminatory behaviour against mental health clients.
A mental health support worker requires number of skills to recognise the
stigmatising and discriminatory behaviour of the health professionals towards clients.
Interest in people and commitment to enable them overcome discrimination. Communication
skills and knowledge of emotional and practical difficulties faced by patients, and empathetic
behaviour towards them is a vital skill. It is necessary for the health expert to understand and
provide relevant information to the client about the ways to resist any wrong habit, or
lifestyle change for better health (Flores, Hatzenbuehler & Gates, 2018).
With context to the given case study, primary practice interventions and educational
interventions may acts beneficial for the girl in the case situation. Clara, being the support
worker for the client, reported the wrong attitude of the Amelia’s two sons, not letting her
quit smoking. Therefore, here educational intervention may help educate her sons about the
negative consequences of the excessive smoking on her health. This would enable them
understand the complex health condition, of Amelia, helping her change lifestyle (Gronholm
et al., 2017).
Application of the effective communication skills would facilitate support worker ensure best
health outcomes for the individuals affected by illness or any kind of addiction in NZ
healthcare.
2.3. Role of education to reduce stigma and discrimination against Mental
Health and Addiction clients
Stigma of the mental illness, and discriminatory attitude or behaviour of the health
experts and other members affect wellness of people. It also develops in them the fear of
being stigmatised or discriminated in the healthcare or society, leading on to reduced self-
esteem. Therefore, the result of stigma and discrimination has been high on an individual
basis, and these individuals may even resist to get the treatment for their poor health
condition.

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Education is a pivotal approach in reducing the issue of stigma and discrimination,
and replaces myths or negative aspects about mental illness. It presents factual information
about the stigmatized condition, with the view to correct the negative attitudes and beliefs.
Education has been found one of the most suitable interventions for people to deal with the
self-stigma, helping overcoming stress, and boosting self-esteem. This was applicable more
often in changing the stigmatised attitude amongst the adults (Mehta et al., 2015).
According to research, it has been analysed that campaigns may be designed as
interventions from the local to the regional level, for changing the stigmatised and
discriminatory behaviour of people. From the initiation of these campaigns, participants were
less likely to blame people or show negative attitude/behaviour in context to the individuals
affected by any mental illness. This will lead to a positive impact on the reduction of the
stigma and discrimination towards people living with any mental health illness (Thornicroft
et al., 2016). Education as a strategy, improves mental health literacy amongst people in NZ
towards the stigma of mental illness, and help overcoming. Secondly, it presents factual
information for the people with mental health problems or addiction. Third, it is much vital
for the health professionals to bring about a change in their services towards recovery of poor
mental health conditions of their clients (Hamann et al., 2016).
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that communication plays a
significant role in identifying and responding the issue of stigma in mental illness. The report
has answered to several questions mentioning the meaning and importance of communication
process in context to healthcare. The aspects of communication, associated barriers are
demonstrated effectively in context to the given case study. In the later part, the discussion
has also provided with the essential skills required by mental health support worker, for
recognising these behaviours of the professionals towards their clients. Hence, educational
interventions or education strategy has been considered best to reduce the issue of stigma and
discrimination against mental health.

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References
Flores, A. R., Hatzenbuehler, M. L. & Gates, G. J. (2018). Identifying psychological
responses of stigmatized groups to referendums. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 115(15), 3816-3821.
Gronholm, P. C., Henderson, C., Deb, T. & Thornicroft, G. (2017). Interventions to reduce
discrimination and stigma: the state of the art. Social psychiatry and psychiatric
epidemiology, 52(3), 249-258.
Hamann, J., Mendel, R., Reichhart, T., Rummel-Kluge, C. & Kissling, W. (2016). A
“Mental-Health-at-the-Workplace” Educational Workshop Reduces Managers' Stigma
Toward Depression. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 204(1), 61-63.
Knaak, S., Mantler, E. & Szeto, A. (2017, March). Mental illness-related stigma in
healthcare: Barriers to access and care and evidence-based solutions. In Healthcare
management forum (Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 111-116). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.
Loganathan, S. & Varghese, M. (2019). Formative research on devising a street play to create
awareness about mental illness: Cultural adaptation and targeted
approach. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 65(4), 279-288.
Ma, P. H., Chan, Z. C. & Loke, A. Y. (2017). The socio-ecological model approach to
understanding barriers and facilitators to the accessing of health services by sex
workers: a systematic review. AIDS and Behaviour, 21(8), 2412-2438.
Mehta, N., Clement, S., Marcus, E., Stona, A. C., Bezborodovs, N., Evans-Lacko, S. &
Koschorke, M. (2015). Evidence for effective interventions to reduce mental health-
related stigma and discrimination in the medium and long term: systematic
review. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 207(5), 377-384.
Reid, C., Gibbins, J., Bloor, S., Burcombe, M., McCoubrie, R. & Forbes, K. (2015).
Healthcare professionals’ perspectives on delivering end-of-life care within acute
hospital trusts: a qualitative study. BMJ supportive & palliative care, 5(5), 490-495.
Shrivastava, A., De Sousa, A. & Lodha, P. (2018). Research progress in the understanding
and implications of stigma related to mental health. Annals of Indian Psychiatry, 2(2),
93.

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Thomson, K., Outram, S., Gilligan, C. & Levett-Jones, T. (2015). Inter-professional
experiences of recent healthcare graduates: A social psychology perspective on the
barriers to effective communication, teamwork, and patient-centred care. Journal of
inter-professional care, 29(6), 634-640.
Thornicroft, G., Mehta, N., Clement, S., Evans-Lacko, S., Doherty, M., Rose, D. &
Henderson, C. (2016). Evidence for effective interventions to reduce mental-health-
related stigma and discrimination. The Lancet, 387(10023), 1123-1132.
Vermeir, P., Vandijck, D., Degroote, S., Peleman, R., Verhaeghe, R., Mortier, E. &
Vogelaers, D. (2015). Communication in healthcare: a narrative review of the
literature and practical recommendations. International journal of clinical practice,
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