There are some areas for further study that flow from this research. One critical area of further study is with regards to training programs. Study on this subject should address each of the areas of miscommunication individually, and should focus on the effectivness levels of different types of training programs. Now that practitioners understand the nature of the problem, the time has come to focus on the development of best practices with respect to finding solutions. Some broader study should also be done on finding ways to reduce medical illiteracy. There are a number of options, including spending more time with clients discussing their situations, or presenting information online that can be referenced by patients to help them gain a better understanding. The effectiveness of these different educational techniques should be studied in order to determine best practices for overcoming this specific communication issue that crosses all lines of language and mental illness.
The Final Report
Abstract
This report focuses on the issue of communication breakdown between case managers and clients. There are multiple root causes of communication breakdown that are outlined. What they all have in common is that they lead to negative outcomes for the client. The paper also discusses some recommendations for overcoming these areas of communication breakdown and identifies areas where further research would be beneficial in addressing the serious health problem.
Literature Review.
Introduction
Caring for patients with mental illness can be a challenging endeavor. As a result of the challenge, it is vitally important that there is effective communication between counselors and patient within the context of the healthcare field. The purpose of this literature review is to explore effective communication between counselors in patient health care.
Literature Review
Effective Communication in the treatment of patients is vitally important to ensuring that patients have good outcomes. As article entitled: Counseling patients with low Health Literacy "points out the importance of counseling patients in the sphere of healthcare.
This particular article establishes the need for clear communication especially for those with limited health literacy. The...
The article defines health literacy as the capacity to read health care information and also the ability to apply the information to the specific medical condition that the patient is confronting. The article also explains that healthcare counselors such as case managers, health caregivers, nurses, physicians, pharmacist and other health care personnel often speak in medical terms not understood by many patients. Having been educated in the meaning of these terms and using them every day, health care personnel forget to use lay terms when speaking to patients with growing awareness, attention is being focused on communication skills training during the formal education of health care professionals (Hardin, 2005).
The author further asserts that language barriers combined with inadequate health literacy can result in extremely negative outcomes. These negative outcomes are often present as it pertains to the administering of medications. When counselors have not effectively communicated prescription directions along with auxiliary notations, the patient could ingest the incorrect dose, administer the prescription incorrectly or adhere to a schedule that is not correct. In addition many of the drugs that are currently on the market involve highly specialized instructions. These instructions must be followed precisely in order for the medication to be effective.
In addition to the health problems that individual patients can face as a result of ineffective communication during counseling, there are also health costs. The author asserts the poor health literacy has been found to increase health care costs. In addition, the level of health care literacy of a patient was found to be stronger predicator of health status than social economic levels and even education levels.
Interestingly enough the article asserts that health literacy levels will probably continue to get wore because of advances in medicine. This will likely increase the number of patients who will suffer adverse health
