Heron's Six Category Model Of Communication Case Study

This essay is going to explore The Heron’s Six Category Model of communication. The model can be used for communication problems between professionals and clients. In addition, it has been used as an interpersonal skills training model in fields such as nursing, teaching, social work, counselling and business management for many years. (Heron, 2001) Furthermore, it is a flexible and powerful framework which can serve a range of professional roles and client’s needs. With the help of a fiction story about a care home managed by a manager called Paul. The essay tries to relate the real issues which can be solved by the model.

Paul is managing a care home which has 20 clients and 16 permanent employees. The nature of the clients changes time to time. Generally, Paul has to manage carers who work with some very old clients who depend on carers to help them with their daily activities and others clients who manage their lives but need help with specific things such as medication. Every client offers his or her own challenge to the carers and home management. At the same time, every carer has his or her own qualities despite the fact that all carers have undergone the same sort of training. This poses different dimensions of problems and successes in the same setting, sometimes at the same time. While the same client can be very happy with the services he or she receives in the morning, she can be really angry with the services offered by another carer in the evening.

For instance, Kate, one of the clients, on giving her account of her day to Paul, noted that Claire, the morning shift carer, is the worst carer on the planet and she does not want to see her in her room. Kate does not understand why the management keep on sending Claire t...

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...e which can show her how to tell people that she values them, their contributions and achievements. This style helps Claire to show people that she is supportive and committed.

This essay has shown that Heron’s model can help professionals like Paul to have the flexibility in the range of interventions they can use in the communication and interpersonal skills. The model is a useful framework that informed me on different ways of communication, analysing professional communication, deciding how to respond and what to say when helping a client. The model’s six basic professional’s intentions in verbal communication can help me to identify what a person intends to achieve by talking and by finding words to say. I can use the model to find the best possible ways to solve issues, plan interventions and select appropriate categories in order to organise ideas and words.