Digital inclusion health hubs launched in England
Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 10:12AM In last months CILIP Update there was a news item about 'Digital inclusion health hubs launched' which caught my eye.
"DIGITAL hubs to give people the skills they need to access online health information are being created in libraries and community centres." P6
The news item is based upon an article originally published in E-Government Bulletin issue 352.
"The project is the result of a partnership between the Online Centres Foundation, which manages digital inclusion network UK online centres, and NHS England. It will initially fund the establishment of 35 digital health hubs, where people can receive help getting online and undertake training sessions on using online health resources, including the NHS Choices website.
Some 25 of the hubs will be located from April in existing UK online centres, which are based in more than 3,800 public locations including libraries, community centres, schools, churches and pubs."
“We know that people who are likely to experience health inequalities are also those that are most likely to be offline, so the partnership between the two organisations seemed like something that could have a huge impact on helping people to improve their health and access the services they need in the local community”, Helen Milner, Chief Executive of Online Centres Foundation, told E-Government Bulletin.
“By being online, people can find the information they need to do things like lose weight, eat more healthily or exercise more”, Milner said. “They can also find out about what’s available in their local area, so they can make the right decisions for them. This programme aims to support people to improve their computer and internet skills, which will have a huge knock-on effect on their health and their lives.” ‘Health Hubs’ To Use Digital Inclusion As Fitness And Wellness Tool
Hopefully some elements of information literacy will be inlcuded in the 'training sessions on using online health resources'. From the research I carried out for a chapter on health information literacy for a book to be published this year there appeared to be little actual information literacy training available for the public more pointing to reliable health websites and resources. It is also good news the involvement of public libraies.
It will be interesting to hear how these progress.