Lifeworld Access and Tailoring

Many factors that affect human health cannot easily be influenced by health professionals without the cooperation of those whose health is in question. Achieving cooperation demands trust: health professionals and those they serve must at least agree that actions taken to protect health will be effective, moral, and desirable. Experience from public health practice has strongly affirmed that health professionals must involve the patients and publics they serve if they hope to be effective in promoting health.

Trust and effective cooperation are enhanced to the extent that health professionals understand the “lifeworld” of those they serve. “Lifeworld” is a term often used to describe the complex mix of knowledge, cultural and moral values, resources, and even goals and ambitions of a person or group. By understanding more about a person’s or group’s lifeworld, organizations can tailor their communication and actions to create the highest degree of trust and collaboration possible.

Commers Health Consulting helps clients better understand the lifeworlds of those they serve and to tailor their communication and actions accordingly. By means of interviews, surveys, observation and other empirical methods, as well as exhaustive reviews of relevant literature, we explore and map the lifeworld of patients and target groups. We use this information in combination with insights provided directly by clients about those they serve to create communication which is more fluid and comprehensible. At times, this involves taking into account specific sensitivities within the target group arising from religious background, age, gender or other personal and group characteristics. If actions are taken demanding the coordination of activities between clients and those they serve, these can be tailored so that they are maximally acceptable to both parties.

Commers Health Consulting has provided lifeworld access and tailoring assistance to clients such as the National Union of Family Physicians of The Netherlands (LHV), Utrecht, The Netherlands.