In August’s UKAAF webinar Sophie Randall, Director of the Patient Information Forum (PIF) through personal experience described why health information is crucial for every member of society.
Sophie explained she began her career as a journalist specialising in public health as an Editorial Assistant for a magazine for environmental health officers who work in local government.
Issues of housing and health, air quality and pollution affecting children with asthma, and health inequality were areas which captured Sophie’s interest and concern.
Health information can often be written using language which many do not understand creating obvious barriers preventing people making decisions personal to them.
Sophie spoke about her move into health information owing to changes in lifestyle, which also brought her into contact with alternative formats other than print.
Following this, Sophie had become a member of PIF and prior to becoming its Director, she had run her own agency for twenty years with a growing concern for quality health information, health literacy and health inequality.
We then learned more about PIF now twenty-five years old, UK-based, representing people involved in health information and support from all sectors, large NHS bodies, local NHS trusts, individual GPs, private sector members, and small tech start-ups.
PIFs four strategic areas are: Quality; Integration; Expertise; Inclusion. It also has a Tick Trust Mark, a quality mark for health information with members working towards accreditation and certification.
If all that wasn’t enough, Sophie represents PIF on a variety of bodies developing policy. An example is the Professional Record Standards Body. The Body that is setting standards for health and care records. So what goes into your health and care record and what comes out of it in terms of letters that come to you or anything else should be following certain standards, not always adopted by local NHS bodies.
We also learned that GPs are increasingly regarding access to digital NHS services and information on health, is as important a piece of knowledge as whether or not somebody’s housebound. There is an assumption that we can all do virtual appointments, but if you are not digitally enabled, then you are being excluded, there has to be both digital and paper-based solutions.
In a couple of questions, Sophie talked about two key features in the UK – not necessarily in other countries – the National Health Service and an active charity sector.
The pandemic made people realise even more the accessibility needs of different types of communities. Targeting based on cultural beliefs, using trusted voices from within communities.
Sophie concluded by saying
“The more we can have the same message delivered in multiple formats in multiple ways, then the more likely it is that more people will be able to access those messages.”
To listen to the full recording, please click here.
