A Stakeholders Perspective of Health Communication in India

The discussions regarding health communication issues in India signifies that the root causes of health issues are numerous and related to individual behaviors, provider knowledge and attitudes. Organization of the health care system, and societal and cultural values have to be well documented in communication, particularly to deal with inconsistent access to health care due to cultural variations. Objective: Health Communication in its literal form links the domains of communication and health and is increasingly recognized as a necessary element of efforts to improve personal and public health. Health communication can contribute to all aspects of disease prevention and health promotion, and is relevant in a number of contexts. Studies have already established the links between communication and disease control programs and in this direction serious consideration of communication issues and the shift from an informational to a social behavioral approach to communication are required. Health communication has been restricted to more of an academic exercise or executive routine. So, an insider’s perspective or “emic” approach to see health issues and conceptualize them into programs has been almost missing. Most of the time, the planners have designed programs in view of the so called ‘Experts’ approach. Hence, a change to this is felt necessary to bring all the potential stakeholders to a common platform and understand issues in Health Communication in its totality. This can lead to a holistic approach of understanding the issues by incorporating both emic as well as etic approaches. Design: The current study follows a diagnostic research design, where various issues on health communication were brought to a common platform and validated through discussions and detailed qualitative narratives. Participants and setting: This comprised people from various stakeholders such as Government, NGOs, Funding Agencies, Practitioners, Media, Academicians, Researchers, Pharmaceuticals and Consumer (service users) in Ahmedabad, a western Indian district. The analyses are supplemented with news clippings for 6 months in leading dailies. Outcome measures: The study analyzes issues across, Retrospect & Prospects of Health Communication, Tools & Process of Health Communication in service delivery both internal and external, Communication on Alternative health care system and other Frontiers of Health Communication. Results: Health communication helps in finding the risk factors rather than only health problems. Health communication also helps to identify “one’s own problem”. Participants observed that communication tools developed particularly for rural people works better, when they are based on the in Volvement of health workers and members from community of study. Communication programs should be designed for specific purpose. Conclusions: The design of health communication programs should be based on demand from the people which could be hidden sometimes due to a disadvantaged socio-economic background, hence there is a need to generate as well as scan the demands. Communication should be given as in full rather than piecemeal. The design, mode and agency (communicator) of health communication should be different for different population. There is a need to strategize the communication in terms of target and then to decide the form of communication.