Health Information News May 2012

This newsletter is intended for staff who provide health information to the public across the West Midlands to keep informed of latest news and resources available in the Health Information field. These newsletters will now be archived on the NHS local website under the section for EQUIP newsletters - http://nhslocal.nhs.uk/news/newsletters/equip-newsletters If you would like to submit a news item – email sarah.greening@westmidlands.nhs.uk

 

I am now Twittering as @equipNHS – I intend to post a lot of these sorts of news items and events on an (almost) daily basis – so ‘follow’ @equipNHS.

Focus on…. Reading for Health

New National Books on Prescription Scheme Combining Self Help and Creative Reading - The Reading Agency is working with the Society of Chief Librarians to pilot a new, shared Books on Prescription scheme integrating self-help resources with creative reading across 61 library authorities in seven regional clusters. The project has been funded as part of Arts Council England’s Library Development Initiative and is supported by the Department of Health. The scheme will create a more efficient way for libraries to deliver a uniform and quality assured scheme delivering significant health benefits to local communities. The project will offer the public a new library health offer combining a standardised self-help reading list focused on mild to moderate mental health conditions supported by mood boosting creative reading and the opportunity to take part in recreational social reading opportunities. It will mean that alongside a self-help reading prescription, users will receive mood boosting reader recommendations of novels and poetry from The Reading Agency’s Mood Boosting Books promotion (www.readinggroups.org/moodboosting/) and an invitation to join a reading group or other social reading activity. The project is currently being developed and piloted by a selection of public library authorities in the North East, North West, Yorkshire, West Midlands, South East, South West and London. The aim is to create a national framework to help participating public libraries build strong and sustainable local health and well being partnerships. The pilot scheme will be launched in January 2013 with national roll out across English library authorities planned for 2014. For further information about the scheme contact debbie.hicks@readingagency.org.uk

Win an author for your workplace - The Reading Agency is delighted to be working in partnership with the Campaign for Learning to offer this national prize draw for the third year. Entrants must get their employees involved in Learning At Work Day on Thursday 17 May and have a minimum of 40 people signed up for the Six Book Challenge by the deadline of  Friday 29 June.   Please see the workplace entry form for full details of how to enter.   And please pass on this email to colleagues in your networks in case they are not on our mailing list. If you’re not already running the Six Book Challenge this year, please see details of how to order materials or contact us. NHS Trusts continue to support the Challenge strongly, especially in the North West where several NHS Libraries are building on the success they’ve had in previous years and also using the Reading Agency’s Mood-Boosting Books promotion.

Key benefits of running the Six Book Challenge in workplaces

• Offers a practical tool for those promoting learning in the workplace


• Supports skills development and encourages employees at all levels to take up learning opportunities


• Injects creativity into the workplace and leads to other activity such as book swaps and reading groups


• Links into other initiatives such as Quick Reads, Adult Learners’ Week and Learning at Work Day


• Opens up communication and breaks down barriers between employees across an organisation


• Raises awareness of local library facilities for employees and their families

We hope you can join in for 2012 if you haven’t done so already.  Please get in touch if you have any questions. David Kendall, Consultant, The Reading Agency, for the Six Book Challenge in the workplace david.kendall@readingagency.org.uk   01588 640537 / 07814 060572

News

New lung cancer campaign launches - A new campaign to raise awareness of the symptoms of lung cancer urges people to go and see their GP if they have had a cough for more than three weeks.  Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in England.  The risk of lung cancer gets worse as you get older, but finding it early improves the chances of successful treatment. The campaign features new adverts – fronted by real-life GPs – in TV, radio, print and online media. The adverts urge anyone who has had a cough for three weeks or more to visit their doctor, or if they have some of the other symptoms of lung cancer. http://www.nhs.uk/lung-cancer/Pages/lung-cancer-cough.aspx

Draft Bill to modernise adult care and support in England in Queen’s Speech - The Queen’s Speech included a draft bill to modernise adult care and support in England, setting out what support people could expect from government and what action the government would take to help people plan, prepare and make informed choices about their care. The main benefits of the new Bill include putting people in control of their care and giving them greater choice, building on progress with personal budgets and giving people a better understanding of what is on offer, to help them plan for the future and ensure they know where to go for help when they need it. Read more

What will Local HealthWatch and Healthwatch England look like? - LINks will be abolished and replaced by Local Healthwatch April 1st 2013. A paper from the National Association of LINks members explains what Local HealthWatch and Healthwatch England will look like and explains the intentions of the Health & Social Care Act 2012 in relation to public involvement in health and social care. New roles include that Local HealthWatch will provide advice, information and will support patients to choose the services which best meet their needs. The PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) currently provided by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) will transfer, with its funding, to the Local Healthwatch. http://www.pifonline.org.uk/what-will-local-healthwatch-and-healthwatch-england-look-like/

Updated Cochrane review on Decision aids for people facing health treatment or screening decisions - The updated Cochrane review of 86 studies found that when patients use decision aids they improve their knowledge of the options, are helped to have more accurate expectations of possible benefits and harms, reach choices that are more consistent with their informed values and participate more in decision making. Decision aids were found to have a variable effect on actual choices but they reduce the choice of elective surgery when patients consider other options. When patients use decision aids, there appears to be a positive effect on communication with their health practitioner, and a variable effect on the time required for this consultation. Although there is an improvement with more detailed decision aids compared to simpler decision aid, the amount of improvement is smaller than that seen when decision aids are compared to usual care. Read more

Best use of social media in healthcare - Have you been able to exploit the explosive growth of social media to engage the general public? Then enter the Best use of social media in healthcare category at this year's EHI Awards, in association with BT.Media such as Twitter and Facebook can be useful tools to seek out hard-to-reach groups or deliver information to support specific campaigns. But there are many other forms of social media and their functions include listening as well as giving out messages. We want to hear about the best examples of social media use in this category. The EHI Awards 2012 in association with BT are now open and free to enter. Organised by the UK's leading provider of healthcare IT news, the EHI Awards seek out and reward outstanding work within the sector and are the only awards that specifically highlight the achievements of those working within UK healthcare IT. For more information about each category, including criteria and how to enter visit http://www.ehi.co.uk/awards - entries are open from now until the entry deadline on 1 June 2012 If you have any queries about entering the EHI Awards please contact Lauren Hoodless on 020 7785 6906 or laurenH@e-health-media.com

England's long term conditions strategy - The Department of Health is asking people to comment on what should be covered by the cross-government long term conditions strategy. The DH is drafting the strategy at the moment and plan to publish it towards the end of this year. The strategy will be a high level vision, describing how they want to see improvements in the lives of people with long term conditions. It will apply to England only. They would like to hear from people with long term conditions, carers, health professionals, commissioners, local authorities and the voluntary sector. You will be able to comment until 15 June 2012. http://longtermconditions.dh.gov.uk/

Results of 2011 Inpatients survey shows information provision remains a concern - The Care Quality Commission has published the findings from the Inpatient survey 2011, which looked at the experiences of over 70,000 people who were admitted to NHS hospitals around England. The results of the survey will be used by NHS Trusts to improve their performance and to understand their patients’ experiences, and CQC will use the results to support our regulatory, compliance and monitoring activities. The results show that there are still some concerns about information provision - for example over a third were not given any information about what they should or should not do after leaving hospital and over two fifths were not given any information on the side effects of their medication. http://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/documents/ip11_national_summary_final.pdf

UK patient records access portal being trialed in the US - Patient records access portal, Patients Know Best is being used in a US trial looking at whether giving patients access to their records saves on healthcare costs. Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, founder of the patient-controlled records system Patients Know Best, spoke at the PiF conference this week. Patients KnowBest gives patients a personal electronic health record account and they can grant clinicians access to that account. They can be given online access to records and can use the system to consult with clinicians online. The portal has been selected for a trial involving teaching hospitals in the US to investigate how giving patients access to their own records can impact their use of healthcare. The trial will involve a few hundred gastroenterology patients. The costs of their healthcare will be regularly audited and reported. Read more

Patient information leaflet: My role and my responsibilities in helping to improve my recovery - This patient leaflet from the NHS Enhanced Recovery Programme has been designed, tested and evaluated by patients for patients in order to give practical step by step advice to anyone prior, during and after surgery. It can be used alongside existing patient information to support key messages and encourage patients to take an active role in their preparation and recovery from surgery. The information in the leaflet is designed to reduce uncertainty and increase confidence. http://www.improvement.nhs.uk/documents/er_my_role.pdf

Research: Using Internet search engines to obtain medical information - Various search engines can play an important role in obtaining medical information for both medical professionals and lay people. However, the usability and effectiveness of various search engines for medical information have not been comprehensively compared and evaluated. Researchers applied usability testing to compare the four major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com) in obtaining health and medical information. They searched the keyword breast cancer and compared the results of the top 200 links from each search engine.  In terms of user satisfaction analysis, volunteer users scored Bing the highest for its usefulness, followed by Yahoo!, Google, and Ask.com. http://www.jmir.org/2012/3/e74/

Digital information service launched for new parents - The NHS Information Service for Parents, launched today by the Prime Minister, will give new parents information and advice they can trust covering a wide range of issues related to staying healthy in pregnancy, preparing for birth and looking after their baby. By signing up to the service, parents-to-be and new parents will receive regular emails and text messages containing relevant and timely advice as their pregnancy develops and as their child grows.  Links to videos showing midwives demonstrating practical advice such as bathing your baby, and parents discussing issues that affected them and how they supported each other, will also be sent at appropriate times. https://www.nhs.uk/InformationServiceForParents/pages/home.aspx

Innovation in Health Information Provision – Lucy Reid is trying to put together an itinerary for a Tanzanian colleague who is planning to visit the UK early next year.  She works in the National Central Library, one of the country's network of public libraries, and is involved in a project to set up Health Corners to deliver good quality health information to the community. Would any of you be able to suggest examples of projects and services in the UK which provide consumer health information in an interesting and innovative way?  I would be particularly - though definitely not exclusively! - interested in hearing about partnerships between specialist providers of some kind and public libraries. This might be partnerships to provide training and support for public library staff or offering health services and information directly to the community through the public library. If you have any thoughts, please reply to me directly at lucycreid@btinternet.com

Local:

Opportunities for Health Information Week – these are organisations who have contacted me to see if they can get involved in HIW – please contact them directly if you want more information:

1. Based in Solihull but would work across the West Midlands: White Ribbon Association is an Educational Charity that raises awareness into the harmful effects of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Gambling. 
   During Health Information week the Charity could offer the following:-

• Interactive Stands on various subjects within our four topics of drugs, tobacco, alcohol and gambling.


• Deliver interactive educational sessions to schools, colleges and universities from KS1- POST 16


• Provide displays on our four topics to various establishments.


• Be available around libraries to chat with general public about health issues on display.


• Provide Literature for displays.

They bring along various visual aids to make the displays or session engaging including FASD Doll, drug dependency doll, drink drive goggles, what’s in a cigarette, safe night out (drunk pentathlon) challenge, drink spiking, healthy and diseased organs, and much more.  If you would like to know more about the Charity please follow this link http://www.white-ribbon.org.uk Contact: Victoria Taylor-Smith, 0121 744 3214 vickki.white-ribbon@live.co.uk

2. In Coventry: Bluebird Care Coventry would definitely like to get involved – we’ve been trying to forge links with GPs/NHS Coventry – and develop links with social workers/Independent living advisors etc.. whenever we get new customers – so that we can aid collaboration with respect to better care for our customers.  I’d be interested in any information stands/events etc.. that we can participate in or events aimed at fostering better links between agencies/organisations etc... Please contact: KamalNazar@bluebirdcare.co.uk


3. For those in Birmingham, Black Country and Solihull: I am part of a small team based at Heartlands Hospital that are developing a Diabetic Eye Disease (Retinopathy) awareness project that will cover the Birmingham, Black Country and Solihull regions. We are very interested in becoming involved in the Health Information Week taking place in July and would like to ask you how we can get involved in this event. We feel getting involved in Health Information Week will be an excellent way to connect with patients and help them to increase awareness and knowledge about how Diabetic Eye Disease can damage their vision. It would be great if we could get involved in some capacity. Contact: balwant.dass@heartofengland.nhs.uk


4. Mend – MEND’s Move It Week is the same week as HIW and it is also Childhood Obesity Week - http://www.mendcentral.org/aboutus/mendin2012/moveitweek The national office expressed an interest last year in co-ordinating with HIW events – I am just in communication with them to ascertain the local contacts – I am told that there are active groups in Dudley, Halesowen and Herefordshire but there may well be others who you can connect with. Once I know where the MEND programmes are, I will contact you again with more details and contacts.


5. MedicAlert Foundation is offering leaflets and posters focused on diabetes, allergies, Pacemakers, Epilepsy and asthma. It’s also helpful and could be very important for anyone with other long term conditions. A registered charity providing life-saving medical identification, they are keen to spread awareness of their service to those who might benefit from it. By wearing one of their Emblems (worn in the form of bracelets and necklets) members alert emergency professionals to their hidden medical conditions and allergies. Please contact - mneufville@medicalert.org.uk if you want any materials from MedicAlert.

 

 

Events

13^th June 2012 - Community Partners for Health’ showcase event. This showcase offers real benefit to Birmingham’s communities, and will be of interest to all organisations that wish to improve the health and wellbeing of the communities where they operate. Health Exchange has a history of partnering successfully within communities to promote healthy lifestyles and address health inequalities. We are inviting community organisations to come along and learn how working with us will both support organisations to achieve their community health objectives, and will also empower individuals to take advantage of free services that support them to make positive lifestyle choices, and take control of their health and wellbeing. The agenda includes workshops on a number of health-related topics, and service demonstrations so visitors can directly experience for themselves the benefits and results that our services produce. The event is scheduled from 9am to 1pm on 13^th June, and will take place at The Saffron Centre, Moseley Road, Highgate, Birmingham. It will be followed by a light networking lunch between 1pm and 2pm.The full agenda is available online at our Community Partners for Health webpage. Full instructions to reserve your place can also be found on the Community Partners for Health webpage, or please simply reply to this email to confirm your place.

27^th June 2012 Free Information Standard Workshops - The Information Standard is a scheme designed to improve health and social care information available to the patient & public. The Information Standard is a scheme supported by The Department of Health to help patient and public identify trustworthy and reliable sources of health and social care information through an easily recognisable quality mark. The scheme is designed for producers of health and social care information to improve their processes and provide a structure framework to produce health and social care information that will be clear, concise, accurate, up-to-date, impartial & trustworthy information. If you are interested in The Information Standard and would like to know more please sign up to attend one of our one-day training courses which is free of charge.  Even if your interest in The Information Standard is at an early stage attending one of these sessions will help learn more about the scheme and understand the steps to becoming certified. If you wish to book a place at one of these training days please click here. Places are limited so please book before you miss out. Can't make any of these dates? click here and let us know so that we can schedule more dates in your region

2^nd-8^th July – Health Information Week – a West Midlands campaign to raise awareness of good quality health information resources for the public. http://nhslocal.nhs.uk/workforce/equip-information/health-information-week Contact sarah.greening@westmidlands.nhs.uk for more information.

4^th July Health and Wellbeing event in Warwick. Contact: deborah.smith3@uhcw.nhs.uk

 

EQUIP has a wider list of events that is regularly updated -http://www.equip.nhs.uk/Events/EventList.aspx You can also add your own events to EQUIP using the online form - http://www.equip.nhs.uk/submit/SubmitEvent.aspx

 

Other online newsletters in the West Midlands:

West Midlands Public Health Observatory Public Health Talk quarterly e-newsletter - http://www.wmpho.org.uk/publications/phtalk.aspx

Telford & Wrekin PCT Community Health & Enterprise Centre (CHEC) have a newsletter available at http://www.telford.nhs.uk/Your-Health/The-Health-Shop/ in the docs folder.

Voluntary Action Coventry Newsletter - http://www.vacoventry.org.uk/news

Health News can found on the NHS Birmingham East and North website at http://benpct.nhs.uk/health-news

Reading Agency (is National but interesting newsletter about public libraries etc) - http://www.readingagency.org.uk/sign-up/

Other links to health-related news -

 

http://nds.coi.gov.uk/ http://www.ic.nhs.uk/
http://www.nice.org.uk/newsroom/pressreleases/press_releases.jsp http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
http://www.who.int/en/ http://www.education.gov.uk/
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Home
http://www.library.nhs.uk/default.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/homepage.aspx