Importance of Effective Communication in Health and Social Care Unit 8

This report delves into the critical role of effective communication within health and social care settings. It emphasizes the importance of communication in building relationships between service providers and users. The report examines the influence of values and cultural factors on communication...Read More

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE UNIT
COMMUNICATION PROCESS IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Value, cultural factor in process of communication............................................................2
Role of legislations charters and code of practice...............................................................3
System and policy of the organization.................................................................................5
Improvement of the communication process.......................................................................5
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................6
References............................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
For any organization and work environment, effective communication is an important
aspect using which a bonding can be created between the service provider and the service user as
well as within the service providers (Lewis, Strachan and Smith 2012). In health and social care
as well, the means of effective communication can help different professional and personal
relationship between service users and clients that enables people to be benefitted with the entire
care giving process (Fisher and Clayton 2012). In this assignment, such importance of effective
communication skills in health and social care will be discussed. Moreover involvement of
several aspects such as values, culture, involvement of different legislations, codes of conduct,
charters and the effect of these on the mode of communication used in health and social care
facilities will be discussed.
Value, cultural factor in process of communication
Values, and culture is an important and indifferent part of the society, leading and
shaping the mind of people living in such surroundings. These are collaboration of shared ideas
and values that determines the way of thinking and judging people (Betancourt et al. 2016).
Therefore, culture and values of people working in healthcare facilities decides the extent of care
will be provided to the clients. Global mode of communication is also dependent on the shared
values and cultures and hence, communication of global organization is also dependent on these
aspects. There are several countries, in which communication is done through paper work as
people believe more on documented facts than verbal or personal commitments. Such as Canada,
USA, Germany and so on (Chang, Simon and Dong 2012). However, in several countries such as
Japan and Serbia, communication mode is verbal or face to face. Further, other factors such as

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age, sex, ethnicity, gender, literacy and social understanding plays an important role in deciding
the mode of communication because with difference in these can aspects style of
communication, and mode of communicative discussion changes. Further, age also plays an
important role in communication as healthcare experts cannot communicate with an adult patient
and a children equally. Hence, communication difference exists (Betancourt et al. 2016). Further,
due to ethnicity, cultural and regional differences, communication style may appear harsh or soft
to one community. Therefore, these differences helps to create a communication style that helps
to create a healthy working environment in healthcare facilities (Betancourt, Corbett and
Bondaryk 2014).
Role of legislations charters and code of practice
To determine the organizations are following healthy and productive communication
strategies, different legislations, code of conduct practices and charters are applied on
organizations so that while communication with the clients, health and social care experts cannot
violate the regulations related to effective communication. In case of legislations, the three
primary legislations to protect the right of effective communication are Human Rights act 1998,
Equality act 2001 and the Data Protection Act 1998 (Sayce et al. 2013). The data protection act
discussed about the protection of patient and his or her healthcare related data. Hence, the
communication in-between healthcare facility should be such that the data of the patent cannot
reach to others and patient’s personal data can be saved. Further the human rights act determine
that due to cultural or ethnicity associated difference, the care and treatment provided to the
patient should not change. Hence, equality should be present in the entire caregiving process
(Betancourt, Corbett and Bondaryk 2014). The third legislation, Equality act 2001 was dedicated
to equality and discrimination related incidents and makes sure that while communication during

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health or social care patients from different background, ethnicity or color do not have face any
discrimination in the facility (Watson and Hill 2015).
Similarly, there are several charters that help to provide a correct way to the healthcare
and social care communication modes in such facility. Care Quality Communication or CQC is
the carter that determine that the communication process should change with increasing age,
understanding and communication ability. Therefore, a healthcare expert has to change his or her
communication mode while treating an adult patient or a child (Care Quality Commission.
2018). Further, voices of action is the another charter in which it is mentioned that if any patient
is having difficulty in communication, then he or she should be communicated using sign
language or phrases so that he or she can understand the care process. Health department
information charter is the another charter that determines that while communication to the patient
or client, the health or social care expert should be able to provide proper and accurate
information to the patient, so that informed care can be achieved (Care Quality Commission.
2018).
There are three code of practices that were involved in the process, such as the code of
practice for professional standards, caldicott principles and the Health and Care Professions
Council Standard of Proficiency for Social Workers (Austin and Pinkleton 2015). The Caldicott
principle stated that while communication of patient information, within or outside the healthcare
or social care facility, a specific rule should be made and implemented so that privacy of the
patient’s information can be achieved. Further it also allows the facilities to scrutinize the
process so that achievement of the professional code can be achieved (American Speech-
Language-Hearing Association 2015). The second charter vouches for the practice which is

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given priority to the people involved in the process and makes sure that while communicate with
them the facilities use kind and soft communication method so that they can feel engaged to the
health and social care process. The third charter speaks about the role of governance and higher
authority in maintaining things like privacy, social aspect, and effective governance. Hence,
privacy and hard work is also the key aspect of this process (Austin and Pinkleton 2015).
System and policy of the organization
System and policy of the organization plays an important role in shaping the
communication strategies. Employees of the organization plays an important role in determining
their responsibility of data protection and hence, they are provided with working related
instructions in the organization. Hence, it is mentioned that defined role and responsibility of the
client helps the organization to move in the correct direction, as employees are full of confidence
and they are clear about their job responsibilities. Further data protection, they also care about
the privacy and the confidentiality of the process (Care Quality Commission. 2018).
There are several issues raised by employees of several healthcare and social care
facilities where discrimination, bully and harassment was done to the patients because of their
ethnicity, cultural difference or their race. Therefore, this things should be prevented in this
section the primary reason behind this is that due to harassment or bullying, the staff become
unable to connect to the team and hence, they tend to leave their respective jobs. Further, besides
the bullying, all the clients should be provided with equal treatment, as it helps to create a
healthy and balanced communication between the caregiver and care receiver (Austin and
Pinkleton 2015).

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Improvement of the communication process
There are several means through which the improvement related to communication
process can be imposed upon the healthcare and social care process. For example, in the process,
the organizations can include active listening and means of nonverbal communication so that
while communication, all these means can help to create an environment to improve the health
and social care related communication (Fisher and Clayton 2012). In the given scenario, it was
seen that the client was unable to contact the healthcare expert because of her hearing related
disability. therefore, if the organization had prior facility of sign language or gesture language
experts then the patient could have been easily conveyed her issues to the health and social care
professionals. Therefore, these improvements should have been implemented in the process
(Treweek et al. 2013).
Conclusion
While concluding the assignment, the need of effective communication in the health and
social care facilities should be mentioned against as without a successful communication
strategy, a balanced working environment cannot be achieved. Therefore, the communication
strategy should be irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity, social structure, and working ability.

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References
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2016. Scope of practice in speech-language
pathology.
Austin, E.W. and Pinkleton, B.E., 2015. Strategic public relations management: Planning and
managing effective communication campaigns (Vol. 10). Routledge.
Betancourt, J.R., Corbett, J. and Bondaryk, M.R., 2014. Addressing disparities and achieving
equity: cultural competence, ethics, and health-care transformation. Chest, 145(1), pp.143-148.
Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R., Carrillo, J.E. and Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I.I., 2016. Defining
cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and
health care. Public health reports.
Care Quality Commission. 2018. Accessible communications policy. Access date: 22nd June.
2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/20121015_accessible_communications_pol
icy_2012.pdf
Chang, E.S., Simon, M. and Dong, X., 2012. Integrating cultural humility into health care
professional education and training. Advances in health sciences education, 17(2), pp.269-278.
Fisher, J. and Clayton, M., 2012. Who gives a tweet: assessing patients’ interest in the use of
social media for health care. Worldviews on Evidence
‐Based Nursing, 9(2), pp.100-108.

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Lewis, R., Strachan, A. and Smith, M.M., 2012. Is high fidelity simulation the most effective
method for the development of non-technical skills in nursing? A review of the current
evidence. The open nursing journal, 6, p.82.
Sayce, K., Shuman, C., Connor, D., Reisewitz, A., Pope, E., Miller-Henson, M., Poncelet, E.,
Monié, D. and Owens, B., 2013. Beyond traditional stakeholder engagement: public participation
roles in California's statewide marine protected area planning process. Ocean & Coastal
Management, 74, pp.57-66.
Treweek, S., Oxman, A.D., Alderson, P., Bossuyt, P.M., Brandt, L., Brożek, J., Davoli, M.,
Flottorp, S., Harbour, R., Hill, S. and Liberati, A., 2013. Developing and evaluating
communication strategies to support informed decisions and practice based on evidence
(DECIDE): protocol and preliminary results. Implementation Science, 8(1), p.6.