Review Strategies used in health and social care environments to overcome barriers to effective communication and interpersonal interactions

Danielle Walton-Rivers

Guys

M2 – Review Strategies used in health and social care environments to overcome barriers to effective communication and interpersonal interactions

The strategies used to overcome barriers when communicating in health and social care can have strengths and weakness, this assignment is going to look at how these methods can be successful or not. The strategies that are going to be reviewed are: reflective listening, training of professionals, looking at the preferences of individuals, checking the setting, technological aids and the professional’s awareness of non-verbal communication.

Reflective listening

Reflective listening is a great way in overcoming barriers to communication, this because this strategy can help in keeping the cycle of communication going and showing interest in what a client has to say, this is also a good way of build self esteem needs in clients, this is because it can show the professional is thinking and listening to what the person is saying, an example of this is though a professional saying something like “so, when your mum told you, you weren’t allow to go out it made you feel angry”, this is showing and ensure the professional has understood what was said.

A disadvantage of reflective listening is that is a person has low self esteem or is angry or is upset they may not want to take the feedback the professional has said, or would get annoyed or think that the professional is not helping them as they are using the individuals own words to tell them what they have already said. Another negative point to do with reflective or active listening is that when a professional may say “do you think you tell me some more about what happened?” it could create a communication barrier because it might make a client feel that their personal space or their thoughts are being in way ‘invaded’ and it could make a client unable to think more about the situation or what they’re going to say.

Training for professionals

Training for professionals can be a really effective and great way of helping professionals learn new or develop ways of overcoming barriers to communication, this can help them more aware of the communication cycle or the different ways barriers can occur, this can also involve taking part in role plays so that the professional can see a situation from a clients point of view, this would help give the professional more of an idea about what’s it like and how useful asking questions, using prompts and probes is as they will know what the client feels and ...

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Training for professionals

On the other and this strategy can be negative because it can involve the professional losing time working with a client, and sometimes the professionals might not able to attend a course due to them not working on that specific day, or that they can’t attend all the courses as there could be several, or maybe they can get to the place that the course is held at, there could also be a situation where the course puts more stress on an individual as it could increase their workload and there is a lot of paper work they need to do.

Looking at preferences of individuals

Looking at the preferences of the ways the client prefers to communicate is a good strategy in helping over come communication barriers, this helps in seeing what the client needs, and how this can be provided, this is also a good way of organise and interpreter or someone to sign between client and professional if this is how the client prefers to communicated.

A negative side to this is that a professional may not have time to find someone to interpret or sign between client and individual, or there3 may not be enough time to see what the client prefer before the first time they meet or it may be in a doctor this may not have enough time or the interpreter isn’t working that day, there also the professional may not know sign language.

Looking at the setting and environment

Where professionals look at the setting or where people are going to communication, for example a counselling setting, this can be a huge impact on the way people communicate, for example in counselling people to ensure that setting is quite so people can hear each other and get messages across, so this mimesis the chances of things effecting the communication part where messages are sent or when messages are understood.

A downside to looking at the setting is that sometimes there isn’t always a chance for people to assess the environment and whether it would the right setting for each individual as the room can be used for a long time and needed by different professionals, as a lot of professional settings are extremely busy and a lot of people such as doctors, counsellors, paramedics won’t have the time and also in a nursery, it would be extremely hard to get quite places for people to talk and sometimes children won’t know how to ask or say things and that can be problem.

Also time limits can be a negative part of looking at barriers, however this can’t be helped as the clinic used may be busy and there isn’t a chance to check the room and also it’s not also possible to adapt the building if wheelchair access is needed.

Technological aids to communication

A weakness in this strategy is that it can malfunction, a hearing aid may not always be reliable this can affect the communication in the message not always being received properly. On the other hand aids like voice typing that some people can used effectively as they may not be able to talk normally and this can provide them with the ability to talk, also people with mental illness sometimes are able use text message if they are in danger or might have episodes where there a risk to themselves, this can be useful in emergencies, however the down side to this is that sometimes it will take people a while to text back or there should be a problem in sending the message.

Awareness of non-verbal communication

Making professionals aware of their non-verbal communication is a good way of overcoming barriers and the professional can ensure the proximity between them and client is a good distance but not too far away, and being aware of this is a good a lot of the way be communicate comes from body language and facial expression and professionals who are aware of this can improve their practice and the emotional needs of clients. A negative side to this is that not all professionals have time to learn about this and also a lot of the time our emotions, facial expressions and body language is sub-conscious and not controlled.

Conclusion

In conclusion reviewing the different ways of overcoming communication barriers, there can be good and bad points to all the different ways and by using different method of each individual situation, the barriers can be overcome effectively and efficiently.

Bibliography and references

Health and social care text book level 3, Edexcel and by series editors & Beryl Stretch and Mary Whitehouse.

Class notes and hand outs

Teacher Reviews

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Sam Morran

1st of Dec 2012

This is a good essay that discusses the strategies of over coming communication barriers. It could do with a little more explanation in places and some discussion of theories would help to enhance the work. The writer really needs to ensure that they spell check or read through work before submitting. There are a few times that thus distracts from the writing. ****

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