Four Stages in Health Communication

Introduction
Health communication is one of the power tools for promoting or improving health by informing the public about health concerns and to maintain important health issues on the public agenda. The use of the mass and multimedia and other technological innovations to disseminate useful health information to the public, increases awareness of specific aspects of individual and collective health as well as the importance of health in development.
There are fourth stages in health communication included: planning, development, implementation, and evaluation . Planning is one of those stages which is critical to the development of an effective health communication project. Communication planning is a research-driven process. An in depth understanding of the health communication environment as well as the needs, preferences, and expectations of key audiences, and stakeholders on a health issue may result in multifaceted and well-orchestrated interventions that are far more effective than single and sporadic approaches to communication. A heath communication plan can health clarify how an organization can: advance its mission, involve others in a health issue and its solutions, expand the reach and implementation of its ideas, recommended behaviors and practices, and ultimately support health behavior change. Effective and successful uses of health communication will utilize multifaceted approaches in order to best reach intended audiences. These include comprehensive interventions and messages that will ultimately protect public health outcomes.
Intended outcomes of health communication can include: increasing audience knowledge and awareness of a health issue; influencing behaviors and attitudes towards a health issue ;...

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...l venues, the citizens were able to improve their health. This particular health intervention was part of the greater REACH U.S. program (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health Across the U.S.), which addresses health disparities between ethnicities throughout all stages of life. The organization has established creative techniques that center on racial and ethnic enclaves. Target groups include African Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders. REACH communities enable and encourage residents to “(1) seek better health; (2) help change local health care practices; and (3) mobilize communities to implement evidence-based public health programs that address their unique social, historical, economic, and cultural circumstances ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,2010).