Health Information News February 2017

This newsletter is intended for staff who provide health information to the public to keep informed of latest news and resources available in the Health Information field. If you would like to submit a news item – email (Twitter: @K4H_PPI)

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News

New video to explain STPs - NHS England have produced an animation to engage with the public about Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs). It provides a simple overview of how the NHS and local councils will work together to improve patient care in the 44 areas covered. You may find it useful or as a tool to explain to others.

Stroke - Public Health England has launched its annual stroke awareness campaign reminding people of the principles of acting FAST.

SCCI1605 Accessible Information (the 'Accessible Information Standard') sets out requirements for NHS and adult social care providers to identify, record, flag, share and meet the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment or sensory loss.

NHS England is currently reviewing the Standard to assess impact and ensure it is 'fit for purpose' and views are invited via three surveys, aimed at different groups:

Survey for health and care professionals and organisations
Survey for patients, service users, carers and parents (also available in alternative formats)
Survey for support, supplier and representative organisations (including the voluntary and community sector)

From 1 August 2016, all organisations that provide NHS care and / or publicly-funded adult social care have been required to meet the Standard in full. Commissioners must also support compliance by provider organisations. Feedback from colleagues who have experience of the Standard in practice would be welcomed, as would support in raising awareness of the review with wider networks and contacts. The deadline for feedback is 10 March 2017. Please send queries to or patients / members of the public can call 0300 311 22 33.

Integrated services - The Local Government Association have a library of resources relating to the integration of health and care services. Definitions, FAQs, tools and resources to support the development of local integrated health and care services, including empowering patients and communities and person-centred care

As outlined in the Five Year Forward View, the future of the next generations and the sustainability of NHS depend on a radical upgrade in prevention and public health.

To support this, HEE has developed a glossary of public health terminology, with our Library and Knowledge Service colleagues. Our aim is that these terms will help to inform investment in training and workforce development in prevention and population health. If you would like to receive a downloadable version of the glossary or have suggestions for improving it, please contact the population health and prevention team on

Pharmacists could deliver more information support to people with long term conditions - The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) have launched a report stressing the crucial role pharmacists could play in the support of people with long term conditions. The report outlines how pharmacists can support prevention, self care and self management, including through providing health education and advice to people at their points of interaction with a pharmacist.

BBC dementia focus - The BBC are planning to bring together a number of strands of dementia-focused activity this year. This includes the potential for library use of RemArc ( a new digital tool developed in collaboration with the University of St Andrews and the University of Dundee which makes use of the BBC’s extensive archive of material to stimulate and support conversations between people with dementia and their carers. There are also plans to create a new version of the tool including music content. The resource is open source.

Mood-boosting Books - A new Mood-boosting Books list developed with young people as part of the BBC #LovetoRead activity in libraries was launched in January.

Patient activation:

Patient activation is a term that refers to a person’s levels of knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their own health. Health and care systems that know the activation level of their populations can tailor their services to support people in developing their ability to self-manage. In order to support the behavioural, cultural and systemic change needed to achieve this transformation, the Realising the Value programme has published 10 actions to put people and communities at the heart of health and wellbeing.

 Patient activation in practice - The Patient Activation Measure (PAM) is a validated, licenced tool to identify a person's activation levels. NHS England has agreed a five-year licence to use it with up to 1.8 million people and following an application process 47 organisations were granted licences, including key NHS change programmes such as the vanguards and five integrated personal commissioning demonstrator sites. It is anticipated that measuring and supporting increases in patient activation will support better outcomes for patients as well as improved experiences of care, increased engagement in healthier behaviours and fewer episodes of unplanned and emergency care.

 Understanding how patient activation can encourage person-centred care - Over the last two years NHS England has been working with a learning set of six organisations using the PAM and an evaluation of their experiences has been carried out by the University of Leicester. The study, which has been co-funded by NHS England and the Health Foundation, provides an insight into how this useful tool is being implemented in the NHS along with the opportunities and challenges involved. The final evaluation report will be published in spring 2017.

Social media for health: toolkit launched - Skills for Health has today launched a comprehensive social media toolkit for the UK healthcare sector, providing healthcare organisations and professionals with sector-specific insight, advice and best practice on using social media effectively. The free toolkit, created with support from Public Health Wales, key industry experts and employers, has been written with healthcare organisations of all sizes and social media capabilities in mind: whether organisations are new to social media and unsure where to start, or want to make sure their existing social presence is fit for purpose. The toolkit covers everything from strategy to content creation, including guides to the key platforms and leading influencers to follow, examples of best practice, downloadable templates and additional resources, as well as advice on how to encourage organisations to embrace a digital culture. Download and share the social media toolkit here: skillsforhealth.org.uk/socialtoolkit Join the conversation using the hashtag #healthsocialtools

Useful introduction to social prescribing - The King’s Fund have launched a guide to social prescribing, looking at whether social prescribing works and how it fits in with wider health and care policy. Social prescribing enables GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services. It is designed to support people with a wide range of social, emotional or practical needs, and many schemes are focussed on improving mental health and physical well-being. Those who could benefit from social prescribing schemes include people with mild or long-term mental health problems, vulnerable groups, people who are socially isolated, and those who frequently attend either primary or secondary health care. The guide highlights emerging evidence that social prescribing can lead to a range of positive health and well-being outcomes. You can read the guide on the King’s Fund website.

Internet health information and how patients share with their doctors - The Journal of Medical Internet Research has published a paper that reviews existing research on patients’ Internet health information seeking and its influence on the patient-doctor relationship. The articles revealed barriers, facilitators, and demographic factors that influence patients’ disclosure of online health information during consultations and the different mechanisms patients use to reveal these findings. It found three facilitating factors that encouraged patients to discuss online health information with their physicians: (1) having a family member present at doctor visits, (2) doctor-initiated inquiries, and (3) encountering a treatment-related advertisement that suggested talking with a doctor. The most common barrier to patients’ willingness to discuss their online findings with their physicians during consultations, was that patients were usually sceptical of how physicians would react to the knowledge they acquired through the Internet: patients were afraid doctors would perceive them as challenging doctors’ opinion if they directly revealed their online findings to their doctors. When physicians embrace openness to online information and encourage patients to discuss the online information they have, patients’ perception of physician resistance and fear of embarrassment could be reduced and patients are more likely to discuss online information with their physicians. The authors conclude that Internet health information seeking can improve the patient-physician relationship, but this is dependent on whether the patient discusses the information with the physician and on their prior relationship. The full article can be read here. Tan SSL, Goonawardene N Internet Health Information Seeking and the Patient-Physician Relationship: A Systematic Review J Med Internet Res 2017;19(1):e9 DOI: 10.2196/jmir.5729 PMID: 28104579

Health literacy and hospitalisation - A study based on the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) has been published in the BMC Health Services Research series. Health literacy is simply defined as an individual’s ability to access, understand and use information in ways that promote and maintain good health. Lower health literacy has been found to be associated with increased emergency department presentations and potentially avoidable hospitalisations. The study aimed to determine the health literacy of hospital inpatients, and to examine if associations exist between different dimensions of their health literacy, sociodemographic characteristics and hospital services use. The authors conclude that the study has provided new insights into the complexity of health literacy, including not only an individual’s skills in terms of finding, understanding and using health-related information but also their ability to navigate the health system and engage with health professionals, and their social supports. The HLQ embraces the full concept of health literacy by encompassing measurement of both a set of different individual skills and the lived experience of a person interacting with the services, systems and environment. These need to be considered together. For example, the study found that increased age was associated with greater difficulty in finding health information, but older individuals were also more likely to report greater healthcare provider and social support than those under age 65 years. This suggests that social and health professional supports can offset other health literacy difficulties, while lack of these supports might indicate a need to provide additional assistance and resources. You can read the full paper here. Health literacy of recently hospitalised patients: a cross-sectional survey using the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ)Jessup et al. BMC Health Services Research (2017) 17:52 DOI 10.1186/s12913-016-1973-6

The language of self care - Chief Nursing Officer for England, Professor Jane Cummings discusses, in a blog on the NHS England website, a series of workshops that have explored the language of self-care with people with lived experience. As part of the workshops, they asked people to identify terms used about self care that were misleading or inaccurate, and to offer more appropriate suggestions. People with lived experience told the workshops that simply saying ‘self care’ creates a real sense of isolation – that they are being left on their own to look after themselves. In response, NHS England have titled their new programme ‘Supported Self Care’. Through this programme, they will be aiming to create a nation of supported self-managers, enabling people to be much more confident in managing their health and wellbeing. ‘Patient activation’ is another phrase that people identified as being problematic. Some people felt that the term implies that they are passive recipients of care who need to be ‘activated’. You can read the full blog on the NHS England website, and find further information on the Supported Self Care programme.

CQC partners with patient groups - CQC have launched new partnerships with a number of national charities to help ensure that the views and experiences of people who use services are at the heart of the regulation of health and social care in England. They will be working with Carers UK, Disability Rights UK, Mind, The National Autistic Society, Patients Association, and the Relatives & Residents Association, as ‘Tell us about your care’ partners. While anyone can contact CQC directly if they would like to share their concerns and experiences of a health or care service in England (anonymously, if they wish to do so), the Tell us about your care partnerships enables these organisations to pass on this information to CQC too. The partnerships also aim to help identify best practice examples of where high-quality and compassionate care is being provided so that others can learn from them. You can find more information on the CQC website.

Events

29th March 2017 - Health Literacy to support self-care: free NHS England event The Person Centred Care Team at NHS England will be hosting a free conference, titled ‘Health Literacy to support Self-Care: sharing and spreading good practice’ on Wednesday 29th March 2017, in London. For more information and to register please go to:

17th May 2017 - PiF Event - Involving users and Co-production.

3rd -9th July 2017 - Health Information Week #HIW2017

5th July 2017 – Patient Information Forum (PiF) Event on Health Literacy and Accessible Information

5th-6th July 2017 – CILIP Conference in Manchester

There a calendar of Health Awareness Events that is regularly updated and is on -

Other online newsletters:

Knowledge for Healthcare updates – Keep in touch with progress from all of the themes on the blog page: which includes the blogs from the Patient and Public Information Group who also tweet on @K4H_PPI

Reading Agency -