Patient-Centred Communication: Discourse of In-Home Medical Consultations for Older Adults

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the use of patient-/person-centred communication in providing healthcare for ageing populations through an ethnographic approach to physician in-home medical consultations in Tokyo, Japan, alongside interviews with physicians. It focuses on illustrating how linguistic dimensions of person-centred communication work by citing examples of case studies, as well as the sociocultural differences between the US, the UK, Japan and other societies in which person-centred communication models are employed. The author uses her own framework, which takes into account face and politeness theory, and makes recommendations for future training.

Kayo Kondo is an Assistant Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University, UK. Her research interests include patient-health provider communication, clinical empathy, dementia communication, discourse studies in health and social care, pragmatics, face and politeness theories.