Unit 4: Lesson 4

Future of Health Communication and Career

Prospects

Dr. Rajesh Agrawal

Associate Professor, TIAS
 Introduction
 Health communication involves
 Putting public communication strategies to work in order
to educate the public and those in the healthcare industry
about important health information
 Improving the relationship between patients and
healthcare providers
 Planning, designing and executing public health
campaigns
 Promoting health living through the media
 Inform the public about health issues
 Help them to identify places to get assistance.
 Publicize the public service announcements on television,
radio, hoardings, panels, newspapers, magazines etc.
 Flaws in Mass Media as a Method of Health
Communication
 A major criticism of the use of mass media is their
unfortunate ability to make the false and misinformed
messages spread quickly before they have the chance to be
disputed by professionals.
 This can generate unwarranted panic amongst those who
receive the messages and has been a great source of trouble
as technology continues to advance.
 An example of such an instance is the ongoing distrust in
vaccinations, which is due to the numerous messages that
wrongly linked the childhood measles-mumps-rubella
vaccination with the development and onset of autism.
 Challenges before Health Communication
 Many health communication campaigns do not involve formative
research and communication needs assessments that should be done
from time to time.
 The “stages of behaviour change” concept is not often used in
developing BCC strategies.
 The overall bias, towards mass media, which receives more than half of
the total budget, with reliance on stand-alone mass media advertising.
While, there is a recommendations from earlier reviews for synergistic
multimedia efforts – with a focus on interpersonal communication (IPC)
and mid-media (folk performances, street theatre, billboards, posters,
and so on).
 Many new BCC products are not pre-tested or their messages do not
have evidence supporting their efficacy.
 The Management and Evaluation (M&E) of campaigns is limited and
requires strengthening and integration into all BCC plans and
management efforts.
 Barriers and Challenges in rural health
communication and opportunities
 The infrastructure or connectivity does not exist.
 Investing in the use of modern technology comes at a high
initial cost
 Cost effectiveness of modern technology in promoting
health
 Low literacy levels,
 Poor media reach and exposure
 Vast, heterogeneous and diversely spread rural audience
 Variations in language, culture and lifestyle
 What appeals to urban customers may not be appropriate
for their rural counterparts
 Changing Trends in Health Communication
 Health sector trying to provide expanded and equitable access to
quality services while reducing or controlling the rising cost of
healthcare.
 Health reform processes have many facets and there is no single
model being adopted by the many countries.
 Mobile telephony, electronic mail and video conferencing offer
new options for sharing perspectives in most urban settings.
 Digital technologies are making visual images and voices of people
more accessible through radio, TV, video, portable disk players and
internet, which have changed the opportunities for people to
share their opinions, experiences and knowledge.
 Steps to deregulate the telecommunications and broadcast
systems, which open up spaces and platforms, such as community
radio, for increased communication among rural people.
 Health Communication: The way forward
 It has increasing visibility across disciplines and among public
health officials, practitioners, and funding agencies.
 Growing and continues in areas of medical practice, in various
social networking sites etc.
 By having health communication available online, many people
around the world will have a chance to become informed on the
most recent and important advances and news in health and
medical practices.
 The future of health communication is promising and it is poised
for multiple pursuits over the next few decades.
 Effective media communication is therefore a key responsibility
of public health professionals and information officers, especially
during emergencies.
 Health Communication as a Profession
 A health communication is a specialized type of public relation
professional
 It works efficiently to spread public health messages and

 help others to understand more about medical treatment, healthy

lifestyle choices, disease prevention, and more.
 focus primarily on spreading information to the public that can have an
overall impact on the health and wellbeing of the population.
 Also focus on boosting health awareness.

 It needs excellent public relation skills to interact with a diverse group

of people, from media professionals to patients undergoing medical
treatments.
 They must also stay well informed of changing health policies and be
able to effectively and creatively translate technical terminology into
layman's terms.
 Potential Job Duties
 Analyze public health risks or concerns to determine what
areas need improvement
 Design printed materials that educate about health issues
and distribute them to the community
 Create ad campaigns that help increase public knowledge of
health related risks and solutions
 Use the internet and other forms of mass media to help
influence public policy to help and educate the public about
various health and wellness issues
 Conduct workshops to improve overall understanding and
management of health issues
 Issue press releases about emergencies or about crisis
related issues in the community health field
 Nature of the Job
 Educate and inform the public about health-related issues, such
as injury and disease prevention, healthcare policy, obesity and
smoking cessation.
 Exercise creativity and sensitivity while working with a diverse
group of people.
 Most of the time will be spent on computer analyzing information
and designing new strategies, programs, and initiatives.
 May develop social media programs, work on commercials in
print or video, and develop reports on efforts' effectiveness.
 Have to attend the meetings, conferences or seminars around the
country.
 Will take you to numerous places and allow you to enjoy some of
the most diverse work in the field of public health.
 Characteristics of a
Good Health Communication Professional
 Confidence – You'll need to have faith in your abilities
since you'll be in charge of various things that can have a
direct impact on the health of the public.
 Good Communication Skills – Obviously, working in the
communications field requires good communication
capabilities. You'll want to make sure that you have good
written and verbal communication skills.
 Good Organization – The job requires careful examination
and consideration of a wide range of different things. As a
result, being able to organize effectively is important.
 Responsibilities in Health Communication

Health communicator -
 Has the power to change people’s attitude, beliefs and
behaviours.
 Hold meetings to inform people about health risks,
 Publish reports on various public health matters.
 Disseminate information about disease prevention,
medical treatments and healthy living to the public.
 Creates programs to provide the community with
information to maintain healthy lifestyles.
 Assess the needs of people in the community and
develop programs accordingly.
 Influence policy and public opinion on important health
care issues and best practices and safety measures to take
care
 Educate and train people to adopt health behaviours such
as nutrition, sexual health and family planning.
 Press releases writing for conduct workshops, create
advertising and BCC campaigns and write informational
reports.
 Report on news, trends and events in public health
 Work for newspapers, magazines, websites or health
organizations, or independently.
Health Coordinators -
 May create and implement health promotion programs for
companies that provide employee wellness programs
 May analyze and assist with cost reduction and policy
changes
 Analyze public policy through constant awareness of policy
implementation, changes and important trends
 Understand the segment of the population that is affected
by particular policy, and make choices about what
information should be shared and how best to approach this
audience
 Comfortably work with scientific and technical information
on a routine basis
 Develop and maintain trust between healthcare provider
and client, their families and others concerned.
 Employment opportunities and scope in health
communication profession
 To design effective behaviour change communication strategies
based on participatory approaches including media and
interpersonal communication channels
 Can be employed with local or state health departments as well
as, public relations departments of hospitals, biotechnology
companies, social service agencies, federal agencies.
 Private companies, such as pharmaceutical manufacturers, and
non-profit organizations also hire health communication
professionals.
 They can also work as an independent researcher and scholar
who contribute to the advancement of health communication
science.
 A career in this field can be very rewarding. These
communication specialists serve the greater good by increasing
awareness of public health policy.
Scope
 Health communication is widely used as a tool to increase
the intended audience’s knowledge and awareness of a
health issue, problem or solution.
 Influence perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of masses that
may change social norms and can bring prompt action.
 Effort involves people and empowers people to take
traditional and informed decisions, acquire appropriate
knowledge, inculcate necessary skills and optimism,
facilitate and stimulate, pertinent action through changed
mindset and modified behaviour.
 Where major part of the population still live in villages, and
constraints like illiteracy and poverty still poses as a barrier
to development, we need a number of communication
channels to reach these masses that should be aware and
be able to promote health at individual and societal level.