K - is for Knowledge + patient

How do families and young people use knowledge to manage their health?

This is part one of two blogs on knowledge and patients. We now live in a “collaborative and social era”. Part one, hones in on some positives and drawbacks of online health information today. The way we gather knowledge effects communication with health professionals.  Could there be new opportunities for families and health professionals to collaborate? Part two is about finding reliable health information online, people are more aware quality and accuracy count.

Online health information and “e-health communication”
are on trend but do they help?

Health information, how do we get it?
Millennium generation children are amongst the first to turn to digital and social media to get information. This could be a “positive”, when healthcare goes online for young people, with services such as Headspace.  Young people also need to be connected in healthcare settings. Digital access helps meet social, emotional and educational needs.

For preschool children an App with a game may be both educational and fun. Okee medical imaging, is engaging, builds skills and prepares for a medical encounter, taking away the fear factor.

Most Australians go to their GP, to find health information.  Even if we rank health professionals advice highly, families and individuals are increasingly turning to the Internet, Dr Google and digital resources. Here’s the drawback, could all this information at our fingertips, leave us more confused and lost in the “information noise”? Are people exposed to unsolicited health information and does this affect what happens between health professional and patient?

Not “just a patient”
Karen Price in her GP blog on health literacy and patients, says GPs have a complex job and a big part of what they do is teach patients. The word doctor is derived from the Latin “to teach”. Price points out, doctors and patients work together in an “increasingly educative partnership”.

GPs are aware they need to respond by providing patient held health information. This includes online information and help on ‘surfing’ the web.

Consumers of health care
Effective communication between consumers and health professionals is critical to better health in Australia. Consumer experience, understanding and knowledge are particularly relevant in an era of complex healthcare, chronic illness and rare disease.

The Knowledgeable patient: Communication and participation in health edited by Sophie Hill (Cochrane review) 2011, spotlights communication between health professionals and consumers. It encompasses people with complex health needs and the rare disease community.

A knowledgeable patient is someone who asks questions about medical information, provides insight into experiences and uses technology to find health information. As contributors, they add quality to healthcare benefitting everyone.

Learning to communicate, chapter 11, introduces steps health professionals, consumers and consumer groups can take to improve communication skills and “interaction”. Involvement and communication skills of patients and health professionals is crucial to improved health systems and outcomes.

Children as consumers
Children are frequent consumer health service users. Little was written on “enhancing the health-related communication skills of the child as a patient, the parents or siblings, or the health professionals involved” [p. 137].

Online social support and wellbeing
Online support can be both informative and empowering. A recent article found families within the rare disease community value e-health communication for social and emotional support.

What is supportive comes from evidence, research, from practice, personal stories and community, including peer support. Genetic Alliance Australia is an umbrella group for rare genetic conditions/disease. Conditions may be so rare there is no support group.

AWCH Facebook is a “heads-up” on Australian child wellbeing and healthcare initiatives with a focus on social and emotional issues of children and young people in healthcare. Find Australian health promotion events, child or family health surveys, research, reports and education. AWCH shares like-minded parent and professional posts, with emphasis on NSW and national. Visual content is also shared through pinterest.

Tracking and managing health

Families face pressures keeping up with health programs, appointments and health insurance.

Health organisations recognise people are using innovations to manage and cope with health and illness.


A knowledgeable patient is also someone who uses technology to track and manage personalised health data. People may wear connected devices and this information can be shared with health professionals. Consumers now receive screening information and test kits in the mail. Busy parents/carers turn to Apps to manage family health appointments, Save the date to vaccinate. Healthcare is delivered to the door, on the streets, community hub, over the phone or via the internet.



Access for all?
A recent report, Looking the other way: young people and self-harm, by Orygen, found adolescents and young people who self-harm received poor community response. Young people didn’t feel supported in the Emergency department and felt GPs didn’t know how to treat them.

Report findings concluded a need for youth and family resources and National standards for health professionals treating those who self-harm. Youth with lived experience of self-harm should be involved in developing resources including Apps, web-based online and peer support.

Access to reliable health information is a public health dilemma. Young people ask for their opinions to be valued in a collaborative approach.

Links
Many of us use search engines for health information and are disappointed with the results. Part 2 of this blog links to organisations helping consumers hunt for reliable information.

Jillian Rattray

AWCH Librarian
http://library.awch.org.au
March 2016

The three little “P’s” - Playgroup and Peppa Pig

Children were excited when Peppa Pig Goes to Hospital was the story of the day at one Sydney play group. There were about 15 children, mainly two year olds and pre-schoolers, who sat on the story time mat. During playtime they couldn't wait to put bandages on their dolls or teddies and one boy carefully bandaged his dinosaur’s tail. Craft was a lot of fun with Humpty Dumpty, both before and after the accident, some children preferred the ambulance craft. It was a bustling morning but there was time for children to select a book from our display and have a quiet read. A few did this.  There were over twenty books to browse or borrow and several parents commented about the range of books available.

Before the story, children were told, ‘When we go to see a doctor or nurse we can take a special toy or book and we will have our mum or dad or person who cares with us’. Peppa pig’s hospital room had a bright rainbow and after the story I commented, ‘We can always play and draw pictures when visiting the doctors or in hospital’.

The playgroup was well equipped with hospital play kits including stethoscopes, bandages and toy thermometers. If any toy was short of a bandage, a box of bandaids was within reach. One little girl showed me green dots all over her baby’s head. She and her mother had carefully placed bandaids over the middle of the baby’s head covering the ‘dots’. This was clearly a topic the kids related to.

I was the first of several visitors for term three with the theme, 'people who care for us'. The playgroup leader introduced the topic talking about doctors and nurses and the children sang several action songs about being sick, including ‘humpty dumpty’.

When the doll, teddy and dinosaur play began a brochure was handed out, ‘Hospital preparation for pre-schoolers – time well spent’. In amongst the fun I was hoping to convey to the children that when we are sick or hurt, it is not because of something we have done. Also if we are sick, doctors and nurses are there to help us get better and Mums, dads or the person caring for us will be there to give us a hug.

Whilst the children played, parents were reminded that fear of the unknown is an issue for young children and that pre-schoolers need reassurance. When we think of going to hospital, we think about the role of health professionals and may not stop to think about the role of parents. My take home message for parents was that their role is really important too. Parents and carers help their children cope with fear by being calm. Playgroup parents laughed at this point, recognising this is something easier said than done. I showed them two books Help! My child is in hospital and Everybody stay calm.

Before my voice faded into the general hubbub, my final point was that it is important to be informed and not to be afraid to ask if something is not clear. Parents can ask the hospital what resources are available to help prepare. The AWCH website and Dr Angela MacKenzie have many helpful links for parents and carers who want to prepare their children in different medical situations. A special mention was given of the wonderful free app designed for and with young children, “Okee in medical imaging”.

A chat with staff at a local pre-school followed. It was not long after I had arrived when a teacher pointed out the hospital corner, put together because of a child's recent hospital stay. The staff borrowed books to read to their classes and enquired about books for children with special health needs or those who have sick parents.

 One of the most poignant reasons for preparing children for hospital came from a playgroup mum. She shared an experience as a three year old child. She recalled how her parents said she was going on holidays. It was devastating to find this was misheard and that instead, her parents had said she was going to hospital. This became a traumatic experience and hard to get over. I finished the morning with a greater certainty that preparation is time well spent*.

Perhaps the three little ‘ps’ stand for – preparation, playgroup and Peppa pig.

Jillian Rattray

AWCH librarian
http://Library.awch.org.au
July 2015

*Dr Angela MacKenzie encourages parents to do their “homework” and be prepared.