Training of Roma Health Mediators in Reproductive Health

Other possible obstacles to hearing what others say
The mediator:
• Misinterprets what the woman says and thinks the woman is criticizing her.
• Prepares her response at the same time she listens to the woman.
• Listens selectively (based on her experience with other women). We limit our
understanding of what people say by ignoring details according to our values and
therefore our interpretations of what was said.
• Pays more attention to all that is not correct, or to that with which she doesn’t agree,
in what the woman says.
• Identifies with something the woman said and begins to relive her own experiences.
Other obstacles to communication:
• Differences in values, education, class, vocabulary between the mediator and the
woman may make it difficult for one to understand the other. Mediators may
misinterpret their roles in communication for behavior change, and:
o Transform a dialogue into a monolog
o Not show respect towards the woman
• The attitude that mediators have better ideas than community women
• Extreme appearance (of the woman or the mediator)
• The woman’s problem is shocking
• The mediator, or the woman, is distracted by other pre-occupations
• The mediator’s response is not what the woman needed or wanted to hear
• The environment is not conducive to communication (noisy, distracting, no privacy);
the woman is self-conscious to discuss problems because of the possibility of other
people listening
• The woman feels uncomfortable because she does not trust the mediator
• The mediator does not understand the woman’s problem and gives advice or
information that is irrelevant or impossible to apply
• Too much information is given: the woman only remembers part of what was said,
especially if she was worried or anxious
• People who do not know each other or otherwise lack confidence in each other
sometimes have difficulty hearing each other
• Women in the community may:
o Fear expressing their ideas
o Believe that their problems would not be of interest to mediators
• Previous experience – if previous encounters/communication did not lead to a
change in behavior, the mediator may assume that future communication with this
woman, or “women like her”, would be the same.
• The woman’s sense of insecurity or inferiority may lead her to interpret the
mediator’s questions as accusations, and the woman’s answers turn into
justifications
• The woman’s perception of the mediator as incompetent (in terms of what the
mediator says and how she says it)
• The woman’s interest in the subject, other preoccupations and/or attitude toward the
mediator. If the woman is anxious or nervous, she may easily become defensive and
misinterpret what is said (including perceiving threats which are not there)
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RFHI/JSI Romania Training of RHMs in Reproductive Health Session 14: Interpersonal Communication