Great Health Engmt/Collaboration Resources from Queensland

Check out these fabulous resources from Community Door in Queensland, Australia!  There are several great materials that focus on health engagement and collaboration here.  

According to the website, the materials have been gathered to assist a health sector organizations with identifying "strategies to collaborate with other organisations outside of the health sector and to meaningfully engage with community and consumers as part of the health reform process."  One document that's particular impressive is the Health Consumers Queensland's Consumer Engagement Framework; there are also many other neat materials available on the site.

Role of Language in Health Care: Passive vs Active, Patients vs Consumer

Folks with an interest in science-based and/or health engagement may be interested in a great discussion that's going on within the members listserve of the Society for Participatory Medicine. 

The gist of the discussion is what role language plays in shaping how we understand and use health care.  Does what we are called - patient, user, person, etc.- determine whether we are passive ("I'm just doing what the doctor says") or active ("I'm not sure that treatment is right for me.  Let me tell you about my concerns and then we can determine the best approach together.").  There is also a discussion about the respective roles and responsibilities in the health care relationship as well as the nature of health care and how it affects language, current care models, etc.

See an excerpt from the discussion, from a post by Fred Trotter, by clicking here.

What Healthy Communities Need from their Transp Networks

The American Public Health Association has announced a series of four webinars in 2011 that focus on the intersection between health and transportation; the program is very timely in that these are issues that more and more are coming the forefront when engaging with diverse stakeholders.  The programs are free to attend.  Here's a brief overview:

Webinar 1: Community Health and Transportation Planning
January 18, 2011
"Explore unique State and local programs that thoroughly consider health and equity in planning."

Webinar 2: The Health Benefits from Active Transportation
February 15, 2011
"Learn how active transportation improves health across various populations and learn of programs that promote and implement active transportation in their communities."

Webinar 3: Health Impact Assessments (HIAS) in Transportation
March 15, 2011
"The health impact assessment (HIA) is gaining huge momentum as a tool to address the social and environmental determinants of health, particularly on transportation-related projects and policies."

Webinar 4: Preventing Roadway Fatalities and Injuries
April 5, 2011
"Understand the public health professional’s role in roadway safety and learn of innovative programs to prevent roadway fatalities and injuries, in particular for vulnerable populations."

Learn more and register by clicking here. 

New Report: Quality of Patient Engmt and Involvmnt in Primary Care

Great new report out from the Picker Institute Europe on the quality of patient engagement and involvement in primary care. The institute "reviewed the quality of patient engagement in primary care, how to measure it, and developments in patient involvement in primary care."

The report covers patient engagement in general practice consultations; patient involvement in development of services; discusses the challenges of engagement and involvement in primary care; and provides recommendations.

The report is available at this link.

Research on Public Participation in Health Policy in High Income Countries

Elsevier has prepared a special virtual resource featuring research articles on Public Participation in Health Policy in High Income Countries from the publication Social Science and Medicine. This is a great compilation of articles in this subject area. (However, please note that unless you have access to an academic library that carries this publication, you will need to pay for copies of the articles.)

Check it out here.