Health Communication in the Prevention and Early Detection of Cancer: in Search of more Dialogical and Inclusive Practices

ABSTRACT

Communication with the population is strategic for cancer control since the creation of a public health policy in Brazil in the first decades of the 20th century1 . Communication actions which expand the society's knowledge on how to prevent and early detect cancer and deconstruct stigmas that delay the treatment continue to be critical to deal with this raising public health problem. The actions are interconnected according to the National Policy of Cancer Prevention and Control2 and every managerial level of the National Health System (SUS) is assigned the role of creating strategies to widen the population knowledge about cancer and its risk factors, forms of prevention and control. The criticism of the prevailing communication model centered in the transmission of information and behavioral recommendations draw attention to its boundaries. Grounded on technical expertise, the actions of this model are vertical and did not consider the influence of the economic, sociocultural and symbolic context, nor the other as producer of knowledge and subject of the communication. The production of statements and their formats seem to be the major focus, but few problematize its reach and the possibility of being understood and mean something to the other3 . The necessity to include the "voice of the other" in the production, circulation and evaluation of practices is a perspective aligned to the idea of participation, an invaluable notion to SUS and structuring the concept of empowerment, which is one of the objectives of the National Policy of Health Promotion4 , that attempts to increase the capacity and autonomy of the subjects and collectivities to advocate health and life, with the support of "several formal and popular communication expressions and listen to what the different groups involved wish to verbalize" The National Policy of Popular Education in Health also addresses dialogic communication5 , a shared knowledge construction principle which proposes decentralized communication processes considering the context of the subjects and translated into practices identified with the popular reality, language and culture"5 . Regardless of its relevance and necessity of innovative routes able to recognize the complexity involved in the communication and encourage reflection and dialogue, the institutional health practice follows the model of campaigns with barely known results. The pursue of better forms of establishing communicative processes with the population remains challenging. The present article presents issues that permeate the communication on prevention and early detection of cancer based in the experience the author has on the interface of education with health communication, in public institutions, and in the dialogue with critical texts on the theme in Brazil and updates some principles that should be applied in practice. It is expected to help health professionals and managers, mostly those working in primary and secondary care, to recognize the relevance of the critical, reflexive and creative investment in health communication with the population.