Values and ideals, isms and ologies: making contact across a desert of differences

The issue of communication and dialogue between academic and service public health professionals is explored. It is noted that each individual operates within his/her own personal attitudes, values and beliefs framework which has the potential to produce serious obstacles to effective communication if not taken into account and managed. The preconceptions of academic public health professionals about their service counterparts and vice versa are identified and discussed. A workshop held at the Nuffield Institute for Health, Leeds, in June 1993 is used as an example of what can happen when these barriers to communication are identified and handled sensitively.