The Most Important Points in Health Communication - Assignment Example

Assignment From the book based on chapters 7, for each chapter identify most meaningful points in each chapter and weakest for you in each chapter and why (3 pages) Chapter 1: The most important points in this chapter are: 1. Health Communication is done by action, by story telling and narrating and everyone does it every time. 2. Most of the human communication is narrative in nature; whether it is social, physiological, mental or spiritual health, story telling is the normally adopted technique of all people. 3. Stories told have multiple perspectives depending upon who narrates it and these narrations describe their very own heroes, villains and other actors. 4. Health, as defined by WHO, is physical, mental and social wellbeing of every citizen in the country. 5. Health and illness are a state of mind and would vary with personal perceptions. This book tries to present a complete set of narratives interspersed with discussions on the health communication. These points are important since they take us through the concept that is being discussed in the book and lets us into the right perspective that it considers. The weakest point is that there is a language barrier that sets the cultural and the medical requirements in line. This has not been fully reinforced and is not discussed in detail. In Chapter 2, the most important points made relates to the narrative being the most important part of our lives and for health communication. Most of our narratives in life follow two patterns of thought process. This is reinforced in the following paragraphs and is important for the entire course of the book. Narratives are true from the narrators perspective and many times could be far from that. The weakest point in the chapter is about the modes of thought. Paradigmatic is not discussed further and is left off though that could have been another major topic of the chapter. In Chapter 3, the topic centers around the cultural sensitivity to communication from all quarters involved in the communication; and all concerned stake holders of the event. Every body has different view points that take on different reasoning and mind set to understand and appreciate the happenings in the communicated event, particularly the role played by the culture. The culture impacts the views of one stake holder to be diametrically different from the other which could take on different cues at different points in time. This idea is reinforced by a narrative that took the American newspaper headlines for nearly one month years back. This narrative and the excerpts from the book is not only motivating but reinforces the old practices of listening to the other person's views as a part of the whole health communication system. Only if both the provider and the patient could work together can there be solution. The chapter while reinforcing on the impact of culture in health communication, it fails to work on the point it starts discussing on the opinion variation that plays an important role in the human narratives and health communications. It leaves out the individual choice part and works only on the differences due to culture though it starts with the other statement. In Chapter 4, the other side of health care is discussed with reference to the political impact these had. The important point it makes is around the fact that the health communications have led to major changes in political scenarios across the country. This idea is reinforced in the text of the chapter using a number of narratives and excerpts from newspapers and books. The political impact is a major outfall of the health communication and it has been discussed in detail. The chapter talks about the politics in health landscape but fails to highlight the issues relating to non-Afro-American politics. It has very little to say on how breast implants have political fall outs though the author discusses about this in the context of politics. Communication with reference to the beginning of life is exemplified and the health communication at that point in time, most men and women are at a loss of words. This needs to be worked upon to have the right kind of response when talking to your friends or relatives. This could occur at any point in the beginning of the life passage; may be due to a miscarriage or child birth or a still birth and many such pre and post natal incidences that would cause immense communication need which we fail to do effectively. It also reinforces that the taboo associated with not having children should be unshackled. These are important points that Chapter 5 raises. It does make a weak point of the child's perspective during this stage of its life. Safe Sex, safe food habits and Teen pregnancy are important points that is made in the chapter 6. Teen communications about their changing body conditions are well communicated and the nature of changes that come about, which forms the central stage of all discussions of teen life. It is also true that major changes happen in ones mind and body during this phase of our life and the author portrays these in her own style. Another important point the author brings out is about the eating disorders and alcohol abuse. Both are very important in the formative years. One of the important points the author pays minimum attention to is on the curricular education and the communication that happens around that. Life's most challenging part is the sustaining and enduring life passage. In chapter 7, the author raises some of the most important decisions that we take in our life. Life altering health changes bring about the relationship changes, life changes and the entire life goes for a spin. Taking all the negatives of this life stage, the author explains the effect of the health communication through out this period of fight that we wage against nature and society for our own better health. Depression is another important factor in health communication mentioned by the author. One of the other important aspects of health criticality is the blindness. The health communication reaches its crescendo during this period in life when we really start narrating all our experiences much more vocally than in other phases of our life. Chapter 7, after this explanation goes on to provide information on the effect of children on this phase, which is briefly mentioned but not dealt with in detail. The pains that we go through because of our children are a touch and go in this chapter. 2: Identify three best narratives in order of rank. (total of 3 health narratives to write on) Why were the selected narratives special to you Don't duplicate from first question. (1page) The first narrative is certainly the one about Christopher Reeves and his fight against the accident that changed his life and his family's. This was interesting because it had all the ingredients that made it something that can occur to any one in the world at any point of time. A paralytic attack that followed literally took him out of the circuit but his fight back brought him back to the lime light and ensured that he be noticed in the world. The second one is about the child birth pangs that the author went through after three miscarriages. The narrative is catchy and typical of a writer's. The incident becomes interesting not only because of the narrative but also the commonality of the event. It is true that every one of us can associate ourselves with the incident since any of us could be the victim of such an happening. This also talks of the pain and expectancy a mother goes through in vivid detail that really requires a record of this kind. The third one is the medical side effects for AIDS treatment to CS. This story has all the makings of a good or bad movie logic. The villain and the hero are both CS and finally ends up with a question whether it is right or wrong. Though of course, most would side with him and say it is right. The impact of the story however, is that the political mileage that people obtain by creating ban on drugs or on any other health related ones however technologically savvy it might sound, will find few takers only. All these three anecdotes listed out have their very own impact on the readers. 3: Pick one of the most boring or irrelevant sections from all seven chapters and tell why (1/2 page) Impact of politics on health communication is fine, but defining politics is something not really in line with the rest of the topics and is not as active as the others. It lacks vehemence in its arguments and does not lead to a conclusive information. However, the positive aspect of this section is that it does try to bring politics to a common man's understanding. In the bargain, it miserably fails to do so, by not providing suitable information that would support the suggestions it makes in an interesting and absorbing manner. Another anecdote in between would have added lots of value in the presentation and created the interest that is missing there. 4:Write a health related narrative. What do you hope your reader will gain from reading it Health narrative will speak about my mom's battle with infertility. Mom married at 21. tried for 10 years to get pregnant. about to give up and in the process of adoption and became pregnant at 31 years of age...10 years later with my older sister. Pregnant 5 years later again with twins, my sister and i. .speak about her personal struggle, be sure to include lots of emotional stuff and details to really describe in detail her struggle over those 10 years. Professor looking for a creative and heartfelt story from the personal narrative. wants to be able to feel that person's (mom) struggle by what is conveyed in the writing. (2pages) She was ten years old when she got married. Young and beautiful with lots of dreams about the future in her mind. My mom and dad thought that they should differ getting a child in the first two to three years so that they travel around the country for some time. Earn and spend all that they make. Little they realized the effect of all those condoms that go into the body do have on going role to play. And that is how it transpired after three years. My mom was keen to build a family. The society looks down on people who do not have kids. Generations have to flow, else it is viewed as an inability to reproduce. But things do not happen the way you need. The doctors she and my dad consulted said that the effect of the condoms would linger on and would possibly wane out after some time. But that seemed to be taking pretty long time. Every one of them said it would be not go beyond one or two years to be completely out of the effect of these condoms. But days rolled by, but nothing happened. My mom was getting very worried. She was an eye sore in the family since she did not have a kid. The support and affection she got from her mother was the only remaining positive factor in the entire drama. While mom had to contend with the mental agony she was going through, physically she thought may be she had just over grown herself and that possibly she cannot conceive any more. Multiple tests with the doctors and consultations later, the status continued. Time and money alone were spent on the issue. While on one side it is the strain of the work and the doctors, on the other it is the society. Whether we like it or not, it is normally accepted that if you do not conceive with in five years of your wedding and donot have a baby in your home, they stamp the family as not good. Now in my mom's case, tongues did wag. Ten years passed since their marriage and eight years since they decided to have a baby in the family. Both my mom was pretty convinced now that this is not going to happen and decided to adopt a child for the family. She had to convince my father, who took quite some time to make a decision. My mother's parents also needed some convincing though they mostly allowed mom and dad to take the decision. Just a week before the day of adoption, she felt uneasy and sick. She knew that her periods have skipped the regular dates. But this was different. She was feeling nausea; some kind of an early morning sickness. It did not occur to her what was causing this initially; however she decided to go to a doctor to come out of this morning sickness. She had a bit of a surprise in store for her there. The doctor said she was pregnant. She was terribly happy and could not suppress her feelings on that day. I wish I had seen her that day. Months later when she delivered a beautiful girl baby (my sister) she was one of the happiest and proud mothers in the area. Five years later she was pregnant again and this time it was twins, me and my sister. 5: Develop (after reading chapter 7) a taxonomy (list) of disabilities. List all of the ones you know and can think of then go back and classify according to for example: some classified under mental and some classified under physical. no need to define. what professor is looking for is length of list and the classification system. (1 and 1/2 pages) total: 8 pages List of Disabilities Physical Disabilities 1. Hearing impaired 2. Vision partially impaired 3. Blindness 4. Polio Affected 5. Paralytic Strokes Neurological Disabilities 1. Alzheimer's Disease 2. Attention Deficit Disorder 3. Epilepsy 4. Cerebral Palsy 5. Autism 6. Asperger's Syndrome 7. Bipolar Disorder 8. Narcolepsy 9. Fibromyalgia 10. Mental Retardation 11. Multiple Sclerosis 12. Depression 13. Aging Congenital Disabilities 1. Williams Syndrome 2. Speech-Auditory disorders Read More