NN/LM Outreach Evaluation Resource Center

NN/LM Outreach Evaluation Resource Center

Outreach Evaluation Series: Community Assessment

2016

Exercise 1

Identifying What You Need to Know for

Health Information Outreach

You want to conduct a consumer health information outreach project in Cameron County, TX, which is located in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and borders Mexico.[1] Your goal is to promote use of MedlinePlus to the low-income residents in the Brownsville and surrounding county. You plan to apply for an award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM).

You need community information that will help you do the following:

·  Plan a program that improves the health information access and use of low-income residents of Cameron County.

·  Convince the NN/LM that your outreach program is worthy of its support.

·  Convince key members of your target community that you have their best interest at heart.

Write down some questions that you need to answer to conduct your evaluation outreach project and be prepared to share with the group. (For ideas, refer to page 9 of Booklet 1: Getting Started with Community-Based Outreach.)

Information about Project Stakeholder Organizations

NN/LM Goals

·  To develop collaborations among Network members and other organizations to improve access to and sharing of biomedical information resources throughout the nation.

·  To promote awareness of, access to, and use of biomedical information resources for health professionals and the public, with a particular emphasis on contributing to Healthy People 2020 (Healthy People page found at http://www.healthypeople.gov/HP2020/). Overarching HP2020 goals are:

­  Attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death

­  Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of all groups

­  Create social and physical environments that promote good health for all

­  Promote quality of life, healthy development, and healthy behaviors across all life stages

·  To develop, promote, and improve electronic access to health information by Network members, health professionals, and organizations providing health information to the public.

Charting a Course for the 21st Century – NLM's Long Range Plan 2006-2016

Recommendation

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/plan/lrp06/report/executivesummary.html

·  Advance new outreach programs by NLM and NN/LM for underserved populations at home and abroad; work to reduce health disparities experienced by minority populations; share and actively promote lessons learned.

·  Work selectively in developing countries that represent special outreach opportunities, such as improving access to electronic information resources, enhancing local journal publications of high quality, and developing a trained librarian and IT workforce.

·  Promote knowledge of the Library’s services through exhibits and other public programs.

·  Test and evaluate digital infrastructure improvements (e.g., PDAs, intelligent agents, network techniques) to enable ubiquitous health information access in homes, schools, public libraries, and work places.

·  Support research on the application of cognitive and cultural models to facilitate information transfer and trust building and develop new methodologies to evaluate impact on patient care and health outcomes

February 2014 Page 1 of 2

[1] Image from Wikipedia Commons: Wikipedia image at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cameron_County_Texas.png