Communicating Health : Strategies for Health Promotion

Effective health communication is a critical aspect of healthcare at both the individual and wider public level. Health practitioners are frequently involved in the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of programs, campaigns or policies in their work. This engaging new textbook explores current research and practice in the field and examines the knowledge and skills needed by health practitioners to promote and improve the health of the population.

The book opens the debate around communication and health and the design of programmes to promote health, and thus moves closer to achieving fundamental health promotion goals. It bridges the gap between communication theory and the implementation of policy and contains practical advice for designing effective campaigns.

Key topics covered include:

• health promotion theories and models
• communicating with the wider public
• communication in traditional and non-traditional settings
• the role of the mass media and information technologies
• evidence-based practice
• methods of evaluation

Communicating Health provides a detailed and up-to-date overview, drawing upon material from several health-related disciplines including public health, health studies and nursing.

Nova Corcoran is a senior lecturer in public health at the University of South Wales. She has worked as a lecturer for over 15 years and before that as a health promotion practitioner. Her research interests are in the effective design and delivery of health promotion and health communication, and she has published numerous studies within this area. She has also published two textbooks in the area of health communication titled Health Communication: Strategies for Health Promotion and Working on Health Communication.