Effective Communication Process in a Mental Health Ward Report

This report examines the communication processes within a mental health ward, highlighting the importance of effective communication among staff for delivering quality patient care. The report identifies the need for improved communication, specifically focusing on nonverbal communication to overcome cultural and language barriers within a diverse workforce. It details issues with the existing communication methods, such as reliance on verbal communication, which led to misunderstandings and conflicts. A literature review explores best practices, including Communication Accommodation Theory and the Staircase Model of Communication. The report compares these best practices with the current workplace communication, highlighting the benefits of nonverbal cues like hand gestures and facial expressions. It then proposes ways to improve the communication process, emphasizing the positive impacts of nonverbal communication and employee engagement. Finally, the report suggests methods for implementing these changes to enhance overall performance and patient care within the mental health ward.

Communication

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................4
1. Write down a description of the communication process that you have chosen and which
you believe needs to be improved in your workplace. Work through the elements of thought in
thinking through the communication process..............................................................................4
2. Jot down any issues, questions, or problems with the communication process in your
workplace from your experience with the communication process............................................4
3. Conduct a literature search to find out what the best practice is for that workplace
communication process...............................................................................................................5
4.Compare the best practice you have identified from the literature with what happens in your
workplace.....................................................................................................................................7
5. Jot down a number of ways in which the communication process might be improved and
why you think so. Make a note of any literature that supports your ideas..................................8
6. Make some notes about ways in which changes might be implemented to improve the
communication process in your workplace.................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
In Mental Healthcare sector, communication process specifically plays an important role as it
directly helps working staff to share the information in befitting manner. In present report, the
healthcare ward that has been taken into consideration is Mental Health Ward. Basically, this
ward is delivering ample number of healthcare services to the patients but, dealing with different
range of problems where communication among staff is considered to be the crucial one that has
impacted negatively on overall performance level (Synnot & Mosconi, 2016). This report is also
going to deliver the information of communication process which has been adopted by Mental
Health Ward. Along with this, the issues of communication process and the models will also be
presented in this assignment.
Main Body
1. Write down a description of the communication process that you have chosen and which you
believe needs to be improved in your workplace. Work through the elements of thought in
thinking through the communication process.
Mental Health Ward, which is delivering mental health related services to their patients requires
to adopt Nonverbal communication because there are ample number of reasons that came in front
which impacted negatively on overall performance level of management of the ward like
previously career institute used to consider verbal communication as their Primal way of
communicating with each other but due to cultural differences it has impacted negatively and
raised conflicts among diverse workforce of Mental Health Ward (Adams, Mannix &
Harrington, 2017). Nonverbal communication process is considered to be an effective way of
exchanging information which is necessary in order to take right decisions and correct time in
relation to the patients of Mental Health Ward.

2. Jot down any issues, questions, or problems with the communication process in your
workplace from your experience with the communication process.
If it is talk about the issues which were faced by Mental Health Ward, that it used to follow
verbal communication only which raised conflicts among management and also impacted
negatively on their overall performance level while delivering services like medication to
patients. Just because this healthcare ward has had problems while communicating with each
other (nurses and care takers), due to diverse workforce it was pretty much required by Mental
Health Ward to take into consideration of nonverbal communication as it directly helps an
individual to understand the actual intention of the sender or the individual who is trying to
deliver some information to the receiver (Yelland & Brown, 2016). The primal issue that came in
front at Mental Health Ward, was the language differences which were utilised by doctors and
others that belongs to different cultures and do not know English in order to deliver the
information to nurses were not that much effective to understand. Including this, the signs that
have been given by nurses to others also created problems while utilising nonverbal
communication process at a workstation of Mental Health Ward. On the other hand, if it is
critically analyse to then it was specifically must for both the doctors and nurses along with the
other individuals network helping within the healthcare ward to take into consideration of verbal
communication rather than utilising nonverbal.
3. Conduct a literature search to find out what the best practice is for that workplace
communication process.
According to Park, S. (2017), nonverbal communication process at workplace specifically helps
an individual in analysing the intent of the other person considering emotions and the reason
behind why the data for the information that has been given is important. In context of Mental

Health Ward it is also trying to improve the non-verbal communication within the ward where it
is an effective technique which can be used as this model is mainly focuses on the different ideas
which will help the messengers of the standard to gain approval from the receiver by which
increases the efficiency in the communication between both the parties and help the sender to
maintain a positive social identity within the ward. In order to better understand the non verbal
communication process there are two different models that are being taken into consideration
and these are presented underneath:
COMMUNICATION ACCOMODATION THEORY (CAT)
Communication accommodation theory is developed by the Howard Giles. According to him this
theory to main concerns, the first one is about the behaviour changes that people make to tune
their communication to their partners or the receivers. The second one is the extent to which the
people receive their receivers for the partners as appropriately at evening to them. Theory is
based on the proper idea that people will adjust the style of speech to one another. According to
O'Toole, G. (2016), this theory is directly impacted with the language, context and identity
within the communication where the focus of both the parties the sender and the receiver on
enter group and interpersonal factors that lead the competition as well as build a proper way
where the power micro and macro context and other communication behaviour can be easily
exist. This story will help the healthcareMental Health Wardand designing to explain how and
why the people reduced and magnified communicative differences among themselves as well as
the social consequences of doing so (Willis, Reynolds & Keleher, 2016). It will directly impact
on non-verbal communication as it build a mutual understanding between the sender and receiver
as well as help them in placing their communication and the information and right place for

effective communication. There are two type of process which are elaborated in this theory and
are described below.
Convergence- convergence is the process in which the people tend to attempt The Other person's
communication characteristics for reducing the social differences. This will work in particular
healthcare sector because there are various social distances which is acting negatively on the
communication of nonverbal type.
Divergence: According to Dickinson, H., (2016), the process of contract in the method of
adoption and in the context of the individual emphasis is on the social difference and normal
difference between interacts which acting as communication barrier.
This theory can be applied by the healthcare sector on various communication processes where
the ward must use the communication accommodation which can be easily communicated
among the employees as well as attempt while communicating to the senior employees.
THE STAIRCASE MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
This model show how the relationship of communication grow and last and also how it and in
some different stages this model is categorised into 10 different stages which come under two
different interrelated stages all these are described below:
Initiation: this stage is about making the impression of an individual on the other individual by
the way of communication and increasing the communication believes between both of them.
Generally people with concerned with making the favourable impression for getting the tension
of individual (Yuen & Livingston, 2016).
Experimentation: According to Cheers, B. (2019), this page include the exploration about two
individuals who are the sender and receiver of the information this is called the problem stage
because each person with analyse each other information and identify the common interest. This
will help Mental Health Wardin establishing a proper nonverbal communication.

Intensifying: under this relationship will be intensifies and become less formal where people
will start revealing their personal information for analysing the impression to other. This stage is
also helpful in effective communication where the individual within the Mental Health Ward can
know each other personally.
Integration: it is that stage where people start making their relationship as much closer as they
can. Where they start making close friends as well as family members, this will help ward in
strengthening the communication between two persons as they are not good friends and
understand each other properly.
Bonding: it is the last stage where the two people now start bonding with each other where they
can easily elaborate and informed about the relationship to the other persons. This bonding will
help in management of effective communication within the Mental Health Wardas they can now
easily use the persons to communicate as well as understand the information in an appropriate
manner.
Differentiating: According to Delaney, L. (2018), when people progress in their relationship
sometime due to the other external pressure they will start thinking individually rather than as a
partner which impact on the relationship as well as communication and arise different barriers
within their communication.
Circumscribing: under this page after the differentiating the partner with the limit to their
conversation no the boundary between their communication will start and after people will never
communicate on same topics because of fear of arguments. This will Impact on the performance
of the Mental Health Ward because of delay in communication.

Stagnation: under this stage the relationship will decline even more if it react on the stagnation
stage. There is complete stoppage within the communication and there is no reason within the
partners to separate because of unconventional reasons.
Avoidance: this is the most impacting stage on the communication where the partner
intentionally avoids one another contact. Industries ward will suffer more as there is various
kinds of problems arise within the Mental Health Ward because of the behaviour of each partner
(Farrugia & Dietze, 2020).
Terminating: it is the last faces within the communication where the relationship completely
terminated and both the partners are now become zero communicated with each other. The
stages also impactful for Mental Health Ward because it have to change its policy regarding
different communication areas.
4.Compare the best practice you have identified from the literature with what happens in your
workplace.
Considering the information that has been presented in the step two, utilisation of the Staircase
model of communication and Communication accommodation theory, management and staff of
Mental Health Ward easily take into consideration of nonverbal communication process because
it will not only help staff which belongs to different cultures to understand each other but it will
also help them in improving employee engagement at the workplace. This can be understood
with the very good example where, doctors specifically utilised hand gestures, utilisation of
proper tone, variations among pitch of the voice, facial expressions and many more has lead
nurses to better understand exactly what they were willing to communicate. Previously,
management along with all the staff members used to take into consideration of communication
process but due to diversified workforce all the information which was sent from the sender to

receiver but mismatched and this impacted negatively while delivering effective services in
relation to medication to the patients.
Therefore, it can easily be said that utilisation of nonverbal communication will be much more
effective and efficient and considered to be the best practice to follow at workplace of Mental
Health Ward, as it will not only improve the understanding level among staff but it will also lead
them to understand what exactly it is required to be performed at work station considering all the
gestures, turn off the voice and many other aspects like pitch and so on (Valos & Maplestone,
2016).
5. Jot down a number of ways in which the communication process might be improved and why
you think so. Make a note of any literature that supports your ideas.
In order to improve non verbal communication at Mental Health Ward there are ample number
of ways that can be adopted by management and some of these are presented underneath: Concentrating on Tone of Voice When Speaking: It is much needed for both the sender
and receiver at Mental Health Ward, properly concentrate on the tone of voice at the time
of delivering any sort of information to each other. For instance, on the off chance that a
nurse needs to show authentic enthusiasm for something, express her excitement by
utilizing a vivified manner of speaking (Harrison & Hobbs, 2016). Such signals not just
pass on her emotions about a subject; they can likewise help create enthusiasm for the
individuals tuning in to talk.
 Utilisation of good eye contact: This is another crucial way of improving the
communication process at Mental Health Ward. Basically, great eye to eye connection is
another basic nonverbal correspondence expertise. At the point when individuals neglect
to look at others without flinching, it can appear as though they are sidestepping or

attempting to shroud something. Then again, an excessive amount of eye to eye
connection can appear to be fierce or threatening. While eye to eye connection is a
significant piece of correspondence, recollect that great eye to eye connection doesn't
mean gazing steadily at someone.
 Looking at the signals at whole: Another significant piece of good nonverbal relational
abilities at Mental Health Ward which includes having the option to adopt an increasingly
all encompassing strategy to what an individual is imparting. A solitary motion can mean
any number of things or perhaps nothing by any stretch of the imagination (Yuen &
Burney, 2018). The way to precisely perusing nonverbal conduct is to search for
gatherings of signs that fortify a typical point. On the off chance that you place an
excessive amount of accentuation on only one sign out of many, you may arrive at a
mistaken decision about what an individual is attempting to state.
6. Make some notes about ways in which changes might be implemented to improve the
communication process in your workplace.
If it is talk about Mental Health Ward, then verbal communication was the only type of
correspondence which has been utilised by healthcare workers and the management. In order to
improve overall communication process at workplace there are some modifications that are
required to be made. These will not only help Mental Health Ward improve the process of
delivering information much more effectively but it will also impact positively while delivering
medication and other services to the patients. In present context, it can be said that changes like
utilisation of hand gestures while delivering information to others. Another change that can be
made and implemented at the workplace of Mental Health Ward is that nurses along with doctors
and care taker would required to consider full concentration this will help in understanding the

tone of voice along with the individuals pitch as well. Therefore, these are said to be some of the
crucial elements which can bring change within communication process at workplace of Mental
Health Ward.
Conclusion
With the help of above mentioned report, it can be said that nonverbal communication
specifically helps a ward in different ways whether it is dealing in healthcare industry or
performing operations in any other sector. Basically, it is summarised that it utilising non verbal
communication process may lead management ofMental Health Ward to reduce all the conflicts
among senders and receivers as it delivers the proper intention of the sender while
communicating with the receiver.

REFERENCES
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