Discuss the Importance of Communication
While communication has its roots in ancient Greece, with Plato and Aristotle, the field of health communication is still in its infancy. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a convergence of thoughts and theories from the fields of medicine, psychology, and medical sociology to create front-runners in the field of health communication, called proto-health communication (Parvanta, Nelson, Parvanta, & Harner, 2011). It gave rise to two distinct areas healthcare delivery and health promotion. The area of healthcare delivery was concerned with the work of provider and patient communication and decision making, while the health promotion group was more interested in developing campaigns to prevent health concerns and promote healthy behavior.
In 1972, the first professional group dedicated to health communication was formed out of the International Communication Association (ICA), with the formation of the Therapeutic Communication interest group. It was renamed the Health Communication group in 1975. Parvanta et al. (2011), from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), define health communication as “the study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health” (para. 12).
Today, there are health communication groups within many health and communication organizations such as the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Likewise, there are programs within national conferences as well as entire national conferences devoted to health communication, such as the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media (NCHCMM) by the CDC. Apart from this, there are many training programs available in schools of communication studies and public health across the country, from undergraduate to doctoral levels.
