Navigating Conversations about Health Behaviour Change

In this episode of Holding Healthy Space, I dive into one of the biggest questions I get asked as a health promotion and psychology graduate: how to encourage our loved ones to engage in healthier behaviours. We cover a staple, health promotion theory called the transtheoretical model of change, a theoretical model called McGuire’s hierarchy of effects about how health messages can fail or succeed, and a framework to keep in your health communication toolkit when holding healthy space.

Resources:

Learn more about holding difficult health conversations around the holidays, from Elissa Foster, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of the MA in Health Communication at DePaul University 

Learn more about the transtheoretical model of change, from Erin Eatough, PhD, occupational health psychologist and Sr. Insights Manager at Better Up 

Learn more about good indicators for health communication, like McGuire’s Hierarchy of Effects, from the Health Communication Unit at Public Health Ontario

Learn more about how to communicate about substance use in a compassionate way, from the Public Health Agency of Canada

Check out the UWaterloo course on health and risk communication