Exploring Resources for Minority, Multilingual and Multicultural Clients

Exploring Resources for Minority, Multilingual and Multicultural Clients

Define consumer health information as compared to patient education,

Identify current trends of health information, Identify health seeking behavior of consumers, Define problems, challenges, concerns with

health literacy for multilingual consumers, List selected multilingual consumer health

resources, and Identify diversity and communication issues with

serving multilingual consumers.

Access to quality health information improves health decisions

Health disparities positively affected with access to credible health information

Access to health information leads people to ask informed questions

“…an umbrella term encompassing the continuum extending from the specific information needs of patients to the broader provision of health information for the lay person"

(Consumer and Patient Health Information Section [CAPHIS] of the Medical Library Association [MLA] at www.caphis.mlanet.org/activities/#purpose)

Information on health and medical topics provided in response to requests from the general public, including patients and their families

May be information on the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of disease

May encompass information on health promotion, wellness, preventive medicine, and accessing the health care system

Can be actively sought or provided through a campaign targeting a specific health condition

A planned activity Initiated by a health professional in order

to impart knowledge, change attitudes and build skills

Has the specific goal of changing behavior, increasing compliance with

therapy and, thereby, improving health

Patients started taking more responsibility for their own health care decisions and acting as their own advocates.

The "baby boom" generation, known for questioning authority, started to reach the age when medical concerns increase.

Health care providers adopted managed care models to curtail health care costs.

The introduction of user-friendly Web browsers in 1995 made both access and dissemination of information on the Internet fast, easy and free.

Computers became affordable

From MLA News, January 2003/Number 351, pg. 14

Eighty percent of American internet users--some 113 million adults--have searched for information on at least one of seventeen health topics

Most internet users start at a general search engine when researching health and medical advice online (66%)

72% visited multiple sites Most felt confident in their search

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project, October 29, 2006http://www.pewinternet.org/

Only a quarter of online health seekers said they always or usually check the source and date

In the 2001 report – half said they did so And, half of the searches on the Internet are

on behalf of someone else

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project, October 29, 2006http://www.pewinternet.org/

Family and friends Newspapers, magazines, pamphlet Television, radio Family doctor or other physician, doctor’s

staff Health educators & patient educator Public health workers and…

Medical libraries (if open to the public) Consumer health libraries Public libraries Churches, parish nurses, health ministers Pharmacy/pharmacist

Conversations with doctors are often confusing for me. They might well have warned me about the [procedure], but I didn’t catch it. They carefully explain things to me, and I make like the intelligent, deeply comprehending person I wish I could be. I nod and furrow my brow. The doctors’ words run down one of my deep furrows and keep right on running, out to the foggy sunset…I just can’t focus on all the variables.

Jack SlaterSeattle Times, December 3, 2003

Physician’s query: “I need information on the management of hypomagnesemia.”

Patient’s query: “I had diarrhea and I was in the hospital for 18 days and now I’m supposed to have transfusions. The doctor says it’s to fix my muscles and nerves. Can you look this up?”

Actual reference question What the patron meant

Sick lick vomiting Cyclic vomiting

Vascular urethral reflux Vesicoureteral reflux

Dropped bladder Cystocele

Fireballs in the eucharist Fibroids in the uterus

The set of abilities needed to:

recognize a health information need; identify likely information sources and use

them to retrieve relevant information; assess the quality of the information and

its applicability to a specific situation; and analyze, understand, and use the

information to make good health decisions.

MLA Task Force on Health Information Literacy

An estimated 90 million adults may lack the literacy skills to use the US health system effectively

Over 300 studies show that health-related materials far exceed the average reading ability of US adults

Health literacy is fundamental to quality health care

Institute of Medicine report “Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion”

Imagine how much more complicated this gets when you also factor in multicultural and multilingual considerations!

Set of behaviors that allows effective work to occur

Culture – patterns of behavior Competence – having the

capacity to function effectively

Cultural Competence

http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/nccc/

• http://www.xculture.org/• Bilingual medical glossaries in 21 different

languages--downloadable

http://ethnomed.org/

• http://www3.baylor.edu/~Charles_Kemp/refugee_health.htm

http://www.depts.washington.edu/pfes/cultureclues.html

NN/LM- Consumer Health Information in Many Languages Resources

http://nnlm.gov/outreach/consumer/multi.html A collaboration of the National Network of

Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Consumer Outreach Librarians

Customized Search Engine to search the listed web sites (not dictionaries)

Immunization Action Coalition◦ http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/noneng.htm◦ Includes Vaccine Information Sheets in 36

languages

◦ http://www.healthyroadsmedia.org/

◦ http://library.med.utah.edu/24languages/

National Center for Farmworker Health◦ http://www.ncfh.org/pateduc.htm

US FDA Easy to Read English/Spanish◦ http://www.fda.gov/opacom/lowlit/englow.html

Oregon Health Sciences University/Hood River Community Health Outreach Project http://www.ohsu.edu/library/hoodriver/pamphlets/pamphletindex.shtml

MedlinePlus◦ Over 750 health topics including conditions,

procedures, wellness topics, and demographic groups

◦ Full-text drug and herbal information◦ Full-text encyclopedia with illustrations◦ También en español and…

Over 40 languages Quality guidelines for

health information in multiple languages

Several web-based resources focusing on selected ethnic and cultural groups:◦American Indian Health

americanindianhealth.nlm.nih.gov◦Tribal Connections

www.tribalconnections.org◦Asian American Health

asianamericanhealth.nlm.nih.gov◦Arctic Health

www.arctichealth.orgMore are in the works…

DiversityRX◦ http://www.diversityrx.org/

University of Michigan Health System: Cultural Competence Web Resources◦ http://www.med.umich.edu/Multicultural/ccp/culco

mp.htm American Association of Colleges of

Pharmacy: Cultural Competence◦ http://www.aacp.org/site/page.asp?TRACKID=&VI

D=1&CID=1181&DID=6751

http://www.fda.gov/womens/taketimetocare/mymeds.html

US FDA Office of Women’s Health and The National Association Of Chain Drug Stores

1999!

http://www.walgreens.com/spanish/default.jsp

http://spiral.tufts.edu/ Selected Patient

Information Resources in Asian Languages

Aging, Medicines and Alcohol (U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration - SAMSHA)

Antibiotics (Federation of Chinese American and Chinese Canadian Medical Societies - FCMS)

Using Herbs (Health Information Translations) Coumadin (Warfarin) (NYU Downtown

Hospital/Ehrman Digital Library) Pain Management (University of Michigan Health

System)

http://palantir.lib.uic.edu/salud/

A Tutorial from the NLM http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/

webeval/webeval.html

RHIN: Refugee Health Information Network http://www.hablamosjuntos.org/pdf_files/

Brief_NonEngl-Final2.pdf Developing Better Non-English Materials:

Understanding the Limits of Translation

Lisa Massengale, MLSAssistant Information Services Librarian

University of Illinois at ChicagoLibrary of the Health Sciences

lmassen1@uic.edu

For all regions: 800-338-7657Press 1 for your Regional Medical Library

Jacqueline Leskovec, MLIS, MA, RNOutreach and Evaluation Coordinator

NNLM/GMRleskovec@uic.edu