ABSTRACT
Communication in the context of pharmacy practice is concerned primarily with health and illness. The concept of ‘health’ can be viewed in six different dimensions (Box 14.1).
In an interview we conducted, an elderly woman with longstanding rheumatoid arthritis demonstrated the importance of a wide perspective of health when describing what being healthy meant to her:
‘Well, I think that a day that I would be free enough of pain to enjoy reading. Now my neck is so bad that I cannot keep it at an angle and the day that I would be able to read in comfort would be a really good day; or a day that I would have somebody coming to visit that I would really enjoy their conversation, for instance my own children and some members of the family and a lot of friends that we have. I have my Christian faith. I think psychologically it is the mainstay of how I feel. Then, of course, I have a wonderful husband and I just don’t know how I could cope without him. I know that is something not everybody who has this pain and disease enjoys, so it’s a great blessing to me.’
