Bridging the gap between health care professionals and communities

Introduction Bridging the gap between health care professionals and communities is a difficult task. It involves establishing a culture of community participation and improving the process of communication between the two groups. Effective communication between these groups is not easy. The people concerned often speak different languages, have different levels of education and competence, different priorities in life and generally understand things differently. In addition, the greatest proportion of communication is transmitted non-verbally, through gestures, facial expressions and body language. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, any feelings of pity, superiority, frustration, dismissal or respect, will almost certainly be transmitted through these alternative modes of communication, they carry much more powerful messages than those contained in what is said. Secondly, many of these non-verbal messages, with the major exception of speech intonation, are visual and are therefore missed by people who cannot see well enough to pick them up. This combines to give an effective recipe for communication breakdown