Effective communication in health and social care Argumentative

Communication is two or more people conveying to understand each other. They just don’t exchange, encode-decode, information, news, idea and feelings but also create and share meaning. Communication is used in Health and Social Care all the time. For example is when a home nurse must communicate to the service user and his/her family to get information and provide appropriate caring for the patient. Every Health and Social care providers must have the 6 C’s which are Courage, Communication, Compassion, Commitment, Care, and Competence to provide the best service that they can give to a service user.

There is verbal communication between individuals by using speech. People working in Health and Social Care need to effectively use verbal communication to past accurate information to other professionals to provide the best possible service they can give. It can also be used to help the service users to build a relationship with professionals to trust them.

A lot of behaviour and elements are needed to have a better communication such as: pitch – High or Low
speed – Fast or Slow
tone and volume of voice – Loud or Soft
gesture and facial expressions – Relax or Aggressive
body posture – Appropriate or Inappropriate
stance – Straight or Slouching
proximity to the listener – Personal Space
eye movements and contact – Eye contact to the person whom you talking to dress and appearance – Formal or Informal

We need to communicate to:
to communicate our basic needs
Fear of loneliness, Isolation
To form relationships with others/share experiences
To gain a sense of belonging
To have emotional needs met
To ask questions
To share ideas and information
To pass on information
To try and reach our potential

There is also formal communication which a way of verbal presentation or document which is to share information in a professional, standard and avoiding slang. For example is when a home nurse taking care of an elderly. They must be calm and look like they know what they’re doing and explain it to them to make the patient/service user feels safe and secure from any hazards. Another example is when talking to another professionals, to get the accurate informations and avoid misunderstanding.

Furthermore, informal communication is use when talking to family and friends. It uses slang words to communicate with close friends or family. It can be use when talking to a teenager patient to make them feel comfortable and don’t panic. This is not appropriate when talking to a patient and discussing about important/confidential topic because they might look unprofessional and not to be trusted.

Both of them have strength and weaknesses such as in formal, it could be use to build a relationship with a child and a teenager because they might not understand the situation. Also in informal, it could be use when talking to a professional or adult service users because you might look unprofessional and look like you shouldn’t be trusted. However, both works properly when use in the right situation and patient.

1 on 1 conversation is type of communication needed and used in health and social care everyday. A lot of people find it really hard to have a 1 on 1 conversation because of their anxiety or scared to received a bad news about their health so professionals must think of this all the time. They need to think what is the most suitable way to approach a patient or their family. Formal and informal is required when talking to someone 1 on 1. Also all of the behaviours and elements listed on top must be consider because the patient will they’re going to reflect on that if they should trust you or not. Professionals should also tell accurate informations so that the patient will not panic because they know what is going to happen step by step and which will prepare them. Service users and their close friend/family talk to the professionals about things that they concern about.

Professionals should be able to help them talk about the topic by using: empathy, to show that they understand what they’re feeling and thinking. Using open questions that give people a chance to start a conversation rather than one word answers. For example is “How are you feeling today?”, this will give them a chance to talk and express their feelings. Making everything clear and don’t assume or jump to conclusion because they might mean something different from your assumption that will give you and other professionals in accurate information. For example is when a professional is talking to a pregnant teenager that is undecided either to keep the baby or abort it. Professionals should tell her the advantage and disadvantage of having a child in her situation and talk to her as calm as possible to avoid panicking and doing something unwanted.

Group communication is really vital in health and social care to develop a good intellectual, social, and emotional relationship around family, friends and work groups. It is used in: conference and meeting group activities meeting family and friends

We used slightly different methods when talking to a group. One of the things they need to compromise how and when to take turns. It is challenging for some people to communicate in a group because of their anxiety or people might judge them about their behaviour.

On the plus side, it could give a positive vibe to service user because when there is a group activity and they respect each other, it will lead to supportive, productive, and co-operative activity. This could be helpful for people with learning disability to learn new things. They prefer learning by having fun at the same time and by doing group activity they will communicate with other people to finish the task that they have given.

Most of those points on top are also use in non-verbal communication to give information without the used of speech. It includes signing, symbols, touch, music, drama, technology, and etc. This type of communication is used when conveying with a patient who are disabled, have a learning difficulties, children, people who doesn’t understand the local language and etc. For example is an eight months old baby crying to tell the parents that he/she need some feeding or changing.

Augmentative and alternate communication (AAC) are techniques to communicate by not using a speech. These include gesture, signing, symbols, word boards, communication boards and books, as well as Voice Output Communication Aids(VOCAs).

There are two types of AAC system: Unaided communication: method where additional equipment is not involve when non-verbally communicating. It includes universal behaviour and other elements such as body language, gesture, pointing, facial expression, and vocalising British Sign Language (BSL), which have some pros such as it is free and can be learn earn easily but it takes time to master and hard for people with leaning disability.

Makaton: The name Makaton is derived from the 3 creators name Margaret, Katharine and Tony. It is a way of communication using symbols and signs rather than speech. It is used by people with autism, specific language impairment, multisensory impairment, disorders. It is created by Katharine Johnston and Tony Cornforth who are two psychiatrist and Margaret Walker which is a speech therapist. This is going to be useful at work when dealing with a service user that only use this system because they can show how they feel or what they think.

Aided communication: method where equipment such as picture/symbol charts or books, a computer or a VOCAs are involve when communicating. It has to types:

Low-tech: equipments to communicate that doesn’t need any electricity/battery to use such as reference, graphic symbols and text, pictures and photographs. For example is the image at the right, a child learning using a low-tech AAC to learn. Advantage: can be use all the time because it doesn’t need any battery and has large images so that people with vision impairment can still see it. Disadvantage: it takes space. Also might not helpful to some service users

High-tech: devices that needs to have an energy source such as battery or electricity such as toys and books which speak when touched, pointer board, single message devices, electronic aids and etc. For example is a child using high-tech AAC to learn such as an iPad. Advantage: You can download more apps to help the service user and it is up to date. Disadvantage: need to be charge because it uses battery and some service users might find it hard to use.

High and low tech may be set up to fit to the person who needs it with or without literacy skill but both have strengths and weaknesses.

Reading
Reading is also hard for some service users because they might have some vision impairment that is cause by many health problems such as cataracts (where part of the eye is being clouded), diabetic retinopathy (where blindness is cause of being diabetic), retinitis pigmentosa (which is hereditary eye disorder) and etc.

There is a system made to help the people with vision impairment to read. It’s called the Braille founded by Louise Braille who is also blind when he was alive. Braille is a combination of six embossed dots which is arrange in two dots wide and in column of 3 dots. It represents numbers and letters which is used worldwide. This system, in my opinion, is the best way for the blind people to read independently without any help of any AAC. This will boost the patients with vision impairment to have confidence and be self-reliant. This system is pretty useful when a service user is learning in school or reading letters. However, not all of them can use this system because of certain reasons such as if they lost there arm or fingers.

Research suggests that only 5 percent effect is produced by the spoken word, 45 percent by the tone, inflexion, and other elements of voice, and 50 percent by body language, movements, eye contact, etc. Barriers

There is a lot of barriers that can affect the communication and it can lead to misunderstanding which what professionals are trying to avoid in health and social care, or any work places, so that they can give the best service that they can do. List of barriers are: Environment: place might be crowded which makes it harder to hear what the other person/people saying. This could be solve by going to a quieter room/place and it will also make the service user more confident to tell some information that they are embarrass to tell other people. Language: there are 6500 languages around the world and it will be difficult if the patient doesn’t speak the native language of the area. For example is a tourist from Brazil went to Japan for a holiday but sadly he broke his leg and need some assistants. The communication will be difficult but it could be reduced by a help of an interpreter.

Cultural: different cultures have different ways of communicational behaviour and elements. For example is the “OK” sign, where you connect the index and thumb to make a circle and the other 3 fingers pointing up, is a gesture to show that you are fine in diving. However, in some parts of middle and southern Europe, it is considered as an insult. Professionals needs to think about that kind of things that might put a negative message to the service user. To avoid this kind of situations they should do some research and for the part of the service user, they should tell the professional if they are doing something wrong so that they can react on it as soon as possible. Hearing/sight impairment: are the two of the most common barrier which is going to make the communication a little bit harder for them. However, they can do something to minimize that difficulties in a lot of ways such as giving them a hearing aid/glasses or communicate with them using AAC. Another solution is to have a surgery so that professional can sort out what is the problem of their impairment.

For example is a hearing impaired patient need some assistants in the hospital, he/she could communicate with the professionals using Makaton or any high/low tech aiding communication. Learning disability: individuals with this type of problem have difficulties expressing themselves using language which means that other people might find it really hard to communicate with. This mostly lead them to lose confidence to communicate with other people because they are embarrass about it. This is a thing that professionals needs to think about. They must consider that its going to be hard to get some information from them but they must use the proper communication skills such as the proximity between them, talk calmly, and give them questions that they can answer with short answer then they can build it up. They can help them by applying them to support group with the same disability so that they know what each others experiencing. Dementia:

Conclusion:
In my conclusion, each topic that I disgust have strengths and weaknesses but when used in the right moment, it will be the most effective way to communicate. Communication is used in Health and Social care almost every second, it is so important that not to get the accurate information, like I said earlier, to get the best service that the patient/service user can get. Communication helps almost every single professional in health and social care to decide the best possible solution on each situation that they’re dealing with. Overall, Health and Social care will struggle without communication.