Communicating Taboo Health Subjects: Perspectives from Organizational Leadership, Clinical Psychology, and Social Work

Worldwide, improving health literacy is a compelling need. Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, synthesize, and understand basic health information and processes needed to make appropriate health decisions. The use of code speak and inadequate communication about taboo subjects undermines efforts to understand basic health information and services. The interrelationship between serious illness, dying, death, and fear influences how diagnoses and prognoses are understood, whether or not and how treatment is delivered. Clear communication taking cognizance of cultural and societal characteristics will optimize understanding about death/dying/illness. It is essential for helping people who have serious illnesses to make meaningful choices when they are nearing death. This chapter describes the imperative to have a clear understanding of the best practices in different cultural settings to meet the needs of the dying in addressing death at individuals’ level of comfort.