Study of communication as a means to help people live healthier lives has been dynamically developing in response to social needs in many countries, while effectively incorporating new communication media and reserach methods. "Health communication", which will be taught in this course will be very practical and involves dynamic approaches that can have an impact on people's health.
For example, today, many people with serious health issues often face multiple social, economic, and environmental challenges. In order to solve such health issues, it is not enough to simply communicate the correct knowledge (evidence) to the person in question, but it is also necessary to reach out to the people around the person in question and furthermore, to appeal the importance of the issue to policy makers and other stakeholders in order to change the social environment.
In the course, students will learn the basic theories and concepts of effective health and medical communication, with up-to-date examples. Guest lecturers with prominent health communication practices in Japan are also scheduled. The main areas covered in the course will be interpersonal communication, media communication, and health advocacy that can influence health and medical decision making.
The course is open to graduate students in the two graduate schools (Graduate School of Health Management and Graduate School of Media and Governance) who are interested in public health and health policy. Students with a great motivation to learn strategies, skills, and approaches for solvoing health problems in collaboration with multiple stakeholders are also welcomed.
There will be two sessions per day for 7 weeks, which combines lectures, discussions and exercises to help students to aquire the day's learning effectively .