ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the number of significant factors that impact on communicating health risks to the public. It considers the role of the media in the context of mental health. The book also considers to be the social life of risk communication through the genre of storytelling in fairy tales and soap operas among other cultural forms. Nicole West-Hayles comments that in Jamaica there are competing uncontrollable risk factors, such as issues of viable livelihoods and personal safety, that seem to be of greater importance than issues such as HIV/AIDS, avian flu, substance abuse, cancer or heart disease. Individual, community concerns begin to be overshadowed at societal level where health risk communication based on scientific data and population level public health concerns assume a political dimension. Health risk communication offers a unique platform for strategic planning and action to foster individual and social change.
