This interesting request appeared last week:
Digital Health Literacy Pilot
From July to December 2019, Good Things Foundation is running a Digital Health Literacy Pilot that supports community organisations to deliver digital health skills programs to their communities.
About the pilot
We know that 4 million people in Australia have limited digital skills1, but 90% of all Australians now have an online summary of their health information on My Health Record2. Australians need to be digitally able to take advantage of the abundance of online health programs and support available to them, including tools such as My Health Record. In a recent survey, 70% of Be Connected Network Partners said they were interested in providing digital health literacy support to meet this need.
From July to December 2019, Good Things Foundation is running a Digital Health Literacy Pilot that supports community organisations to deliver digital health skills programs to their communities. By participating in the pilot, your organisation will help us to design and deliver programs that support people to improve their digital health literacy, such as learning how to find quality, reliable information, as well as understanding how to use and manage their My Health Record.
We believe that supporting people to learn essential digital health literacy skills is critical to ensure every Australian has the ability to make informed, confident choices when it comes to supporting their health and wellbeing online.
The Digital Health Literacy Pilot is a program developed by Good Things Foundation, funded by the Australian Digital Health Agency.
Express your interest
We're looking for a small number of community organisations in the Ballarat region and Sydney metro area to participate in this pilot.
We're also looking for two specialist partners to test specific approaches and resources with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people or people with disabilities.
Please note: these guidelines are subject to change.
1 Digital Inclusion: Report of Online Behaviours in Australia 2016 (Australia Post / BehaviourWorks)
2 My Health Record Statistics as at 26 May 2019, Australian Digital Health Agency
2 My Health Record Statistics as at 26 May 2019, Australian Digital Health Agency
Here is the link:
It seemed to start out on this by understanding who was behind this and so on.
The major driver seems to be found here:
Good Things Foundation
We are a social change charity, helping people to improve their lives through digital. We work with partners in thousands of communities across Australia, the UK and Kenya.
Good Things Foundation Australia
Registered ACN Number 618363974
Registered ACN Number 618363974
Here is the link:
As I wandered around the website the feeling of a secret rather Orwellian organization deepened.
They say they are a “social change charity” – whatever that is – and as far as I can tell they work by hoovering up government grants to promote digital usage and literacy.
The organisation that is wanting proposals is found here:
It seems those who work here are Grant coordinators and trainers etc. to run sessions for seniors.
It is very hard to find out just where the money for this organisation actually comes from although the logo suggests some part of the Federal Government but what part is not obviously named.
So what we have is an obscure foundation gathering some funds for some small pilots of educational efforts to promote more usage of Digital Health (read #myHealthRecord).
Frankly this is way too little way too late for a problem that impacts well over 20% of the population.
Why not just a straight forward program of research and education to really identify what would work best (not via some obscure charity) and develop a real understanding regarding all the engagement issues surrounding the #myHR. Pushing out endless propaganda is not the way forward. What is needed are concrete ways of improving things while accepting that pushing use of the #myHR might not actually be the best way to support the health of older / disadvantaged Australians. I suspect there are some urgent other steps needed not involving the ‘Good Things Foundation’! It is astonishing to me that entities like the Consumer Health Forum and not leaping up and down demanding more efforts to improve access the quality health care - of which, to date, we know the #myHR is hardly a contributor!
Really you could not make this stuff up!
David.
10 comments:
Why is all this effort and money being poured into something as useless as people's health records? If the government really wanted to improve the health of the average Australian, this is a bad way to go about it. There are so many other, more effective opportunities: A sugar tax, better aged care, better health education in schools, etc etc. But digital literacy? Pure stupidity.
Not wanting to be nit-picky but there is no actual definition (that I could find) on what they mean by Digital Health Literacy. This is not a simple task and it is not one-dimensional.
Digital health: (Digital Health Institute: http://dhi-scotland.com/about-dhi) is the convergence of the digital revolution and genetics revolutions within healthcare...empowering us to better track, manage and improve healthcare...reduce inefficiencies in healthcare delivery, improve access, reduce costs, increase quality, and make medicine more personalised.
E-health literacy: (Norman CD, et al, 2006) the ability to seek, find, understand, and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to addressing or solving a health problem
Health literacy: ‘(WHO 2015) the personal characteristics and social resources needed for individuals and communities to access, understand, appraise and use information and services to make decisions about health
Thanks for highlighting this David I have added to thing to watch out for. Easy money and warm fizzle feelings go so well together
Health Minister Hunt thinks it's marvelous stuff. He's right behind it.
That is good news, we all know the Minister Hunt has a track record for standing behind winners, ask his mate Dutton.
It's easier for the Health Minister to promote flashy, glitzy technology toys than address real health issues:
Australia's National Medicines Policy is outdated and in need of review
https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2019/211/6/australias-national-medicines-policy-outdated-and-need-review
It's not as though they haven't done this sort of thing before:
https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/projects/nhs-widening-digital-participation-phase2
I wonder if there's any back-door connect? Jobs for mates? Setting things up for a move back to the UK?
Why a UK registered charity? Are our homegrown charities useless? I wonder if a national outlet with regional and local hubs might have been a better choice.
Good Things is an Australian registered charity and has operated here since 2017. https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/56d141a105bd6224e013d64518d27114#overview
No idea of the positive impact they have, and you can only assume this was an open tender process (another aspect of open government the ADHA fails to provide transparency of). I do hope though they know what they have let themselves in for.
they will have drunk Tim's koolaid
It's easier for the Health Minister to promote flashy, glitzy technology toys than address real health issues:
Correct this is a common problem - the people with the authority to write the cheque and influence or make changes are neither qualified or informed enough about health or the digital technologies to make informed decisions. The bright shiny objects look fabulous until you put them into effect and see how pointless or useless they are leaving the end users to struggle to work with them or drown trying
Post a Comment