The Family and Medical Counseling Service in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, DC provides patient education in a unique format in a very underserved community. The primary medical department of this organization not only provides comprehensive health care but provides a resource center for training clients to access information, staffed by the clinicians. This enables the clients to pose their medical information questions to those who can and will help them interpret the information. The resource center is open to the clients all day. Initial training of the clinic staff was accomplished through the PARTNERS for Health Information Project, an NLM-funded consumer health project at the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, George Washington University Medical Center. The ultimate goal is to create a resource center that will allow electronic access to medical information by any community resident. The computers also enable the social workers to work directly with their clients to connect them to services and state- of-the-art information.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, learners will be able to: 1. Identify the information and health promotion needs of clients in a community based AIDS clinic. 2. Recognize health and community resources that provide usable information to community based organizations. 3. Describe the importance of readily accessible electronic health information resources based in a community HIV/AIDS clinic.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Internet
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: NLM
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: FMCS has an NLM AIDS training grant