This press release appeared last week!
Good things happening to support digital health literacy
Published 22 March 2021
A digital health literacy initiative funded by the Australian Digital Health Agency last year is reaping significant rewards and helping bridge the digital divide that precludes many Australians accessing improved health services.
Last year, 71 community organisations across Australia were selected by the Good Things Foundation to teach digital health literacy skills through the Health My Way program and improve digital inclusion.
Good Things Foundation is a social change charity that supports people to improve their lives through the use of technology and builds understanding and skills to allow Australians to realise the benefits of the evolving digital health system.
The Foundation trained and resourced 232 digital health mentors from the funded community organisations to deliver the project. Eighty per cent of participants in the pilot said their digital health literacy skills and confidence had increased.
During the project, at least 3,000 people have been directly supported by the mentors to improve their skills. Another 3,000 have been reached through community events and provision of resources on accessing reliable information online about COVID-19.
Australian Digital Health Agency CEO Amanda Cattermole said that by supporting the Good Things Foundation and its national network of community organisations, the Agency was benefitting from their local relationships and existing roles supporting communities.
Good Things Foundation has a network of 3,500 community organisations providing digital skills and online tools to support their communities. The organisations selected to receive funding included those supporting seniors, culturally and linguistically diverse people and people with disabilities.
Staff and volunteers of the selected community organisations attended Good Things Foundation’s train-the-trainer sessions so they could teach people in their local area how to understand and use digital health literacy tools such as My Health Record or fitness and wellbeing apps, and find reliable health information online.
One organisation participating in the program is Burdekin Community Association in Queensland. They have been running the digital health literacy program throughout the pandemic. Their Service Coordinator Rita Quagliata said: “We kept the centre open under COVID-safe conditions and were able to continue to provide advice both in person and over the phone when our community needed it most.
“This program is very beneficial and easy for learners to follow. It can be paced to suit each individual’s needs and offers a tailored approach to improve their digital skills.”
Burdekin Community Association supported community member Val to learn new digital health skills. Val said: “The program and courses have really improved my confidence and last week I sent my first email which I was thrilled about. I want to learn anything that I possibly can. I want to continue being independent and continue having full control of my life and my health.”
National Director of Good Things Foundation Jess Wilson said Good Things Foundation welcomed the opportunity to work with the Australian Digital Health Agency to promote digital health literacy skills in Australia.
“Digital skills are essential for all Australians so they can benefit from the range of online tools available to improve their health and wellbeing,” she said. “Our network of organisations has supported people to learn these valuable skills in their community for free.”
Ms Cattermole said there was so much potential for people to use technology to improve their health.
“The Good Things Foundation has been assisting people around the country to find out what is available and how they can use it,” she said.
“Together with our work with the Australian Library and Information Association who help people access their My Health Records, we are supporting Australians to make the most of the fantastic health tech innovations in this country – to help them lead happier, healthier lives.”
Ms Wilson said the Foundation had developed and released brand new online learning modules to support the work undertaken in the community to improve digital health literacy. Released for the first time late last year, these can be accessed by anyone, anytime.
Here is the link:
Here is the team delivering this fantastic effort!
About us
We are part of the Good Things Foundation Group and are supported by the Good Things Foundation team in the UK. Since launching in Australia in August 2017, Good Things Foundation Australia has:
- Set-up the Australian office in Sydney and established a local team of 15 staff
- Won a significant Australian Government tender to deliver the Be Connected program
- Recruited and supported over 3,500 diverse community organisations to join the Be Connected Network, building a national network with the shared aim to help older Australians to improve their digital literacy
- Awarded over $13 million in grants aimed at building capacity within the Be Connected Network to deliver digital literacy support for older Australians
- Established a digital inclusion community of practice through our Capacity Builders program
- Launched three Get Online Week digital inclusion campaigns in Australia.
We want a world where everyone benefits from digital.
Here is the link:
https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org.au/about-us
You really do have to wonder about priorities here. Of the digital skills those on the wrong side of the digital divide need I would reckon Digital Health and the #myHR would be towards the bottom of the list below basic email use, general web use, security etc.
I wonder how much the ADHA paid for 3000 people to get a #myHealthRecord pep talk! Hard to see it would have been value for public money! I guess the Foundation does need a $million or so to pay the staff and keep the lights on!
I am not sure we taxpayers are getting a good deal from the stupidly named “Good Things Foundation”!
David.
14 comments:
The ADHA sings from the same song book as its master, the Federal Government.
Read this and see just how much the bungled VOVID-91 vaccine program has in common with My Health Record.
4 ways Australia’s COVID vaccine rollout has been bungled
https://theconversation.com/4-ways-australias-covid-vaccine-rollout-has-been-bungled-158225?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton
Starting with this quote:
"The biggest problem with the relentlessly optimistic political messaging is it makes it harder for the government to admit its mistakes, learn from them, and reset the rollout."
$ 902,000 FY 2019-2020
No surprise senate reporting stops being published after that. Smells like another ..... from ... and ...
AnonymousApril 02, 2021 2:45 PM. Good article, I had forgotten that Greg Hunt “my Pillow Guy” rant. What a complete plonker.
The government tries to under promise and over deliver.
The reality is that they promise and don't deliver.
Well I ran through the MyHR course. Answered every question incorrectly - still passed and informed I was now ready to start using the MyHR. Oddly when I answered the survey - no I do nit feel comfortable using digital health the text box disappeared.
Their government reporting must be very misleading - so a perfect match for ADHA.
I got the same result as G. Carter. Thanks David, another Government giveaway exposed.
This is what their website says:
"My Health Record is a government service that enables you to take your health records anywhere and allows healthcare providers quick and easy access to your medical history. convenient and safe way to keep all your medical information together in one place."
https://learning.goodthingsfoundation.org.au/subjects/digital-health/digital-health/my-health-record-privacy-and-basics
More blatant lies.
Evidence of just how incompetent ADHA was under the former CEO’s that this level of effort is rewarded so handsomely. I do not blame Good Thing Foundation, they obviously entered into a mutually beneficial relationship with an easy funded.
I have slowly become a believer in small government, as it appears that they stuff up whatever they do and quite often get narky when its pointed out and just throw good money after bad. Unfortunately they don't have any money, so this wastage is not tax payers money, its borrowed money, so it will be a burden on our children! eHealth was progressing quite well without government help in the late 90s and in many ways has gone backward as the multinational pigs push there way into the government filled trough and it turns out they are full of hot air and deliver very little. $20 Million NASH by IBM (not delivered of course but they were paid) was a perfect example.
In health care the health department has pushed regulation and bureaucracy to the point that single doctor GP surgeries are no longer viable and we only have corporate pathology (Apart from a few stand out histopathology providers). The continuity of care has been decimated and GPs have been demoralized by endless paperwork. I personally know many GPs who have retired early in disgust. It seems the hopeless bureaucracy thinks everyone should be in a big organization, because that's all they know, but they don't seem to know how totally hopeless, and out of depth, they are.
On the plus side computers refuse to become woke and stubbornly refuse to pretend everything is OK and just crash. I guess once AI matures computers will lock all the bureaucracy in a woke friendly module and refuse to open the pod bay doors? Until then the real IT world has to be run on old fashioned principles like standards, data quality, code review and extensive testing because computers refuse to take any notice of the ministerial edicts to appear to work. We need to eliminate this expensive farce that every national eHealth Authority have been, until that happens the real progress can only occur underground, under their radar.
It is well known that in the UK, governments of both colours are trying to privatise the NHS along the American lines. Health care is costing the government far too much ans the costs are growing. Unfortunately for their government the British love the NHS.
The Australian government is starting from a different place (no NHS) but also wants to privatise healthcare as much as possible. The real driver behind a national medical record (which MyHR isn't, but they thought it would be) was to build a system that integrated a patient's health data by providing access to all the different sources.
Sounds like a good idea and would facilitate competition between health providers - wherever a patient went, the provider could see all their data.
Unfortunately, the vision collapsed for two reasons. The first is that it's much too hard and the second is because the Federal Department of Health is a policy department and is totally ill equipped to undertake anything as complex.
Their failure with aged care and the vaccine rollout are just two examples of their incompetence.
IMHO, it all comes down to hubris. Federal politicians and public servants often think they are better than their state counterparts and should be in charge of everything. The worst are the ministerial advisers (who are neither elected nor accountable) as evidenced by the arrogance and abuse shown by so many when it comes to dealing with women.
Just don't expect them to suddenly change of their own accord.
If Bernard's right, Andrew is getting exactly what he wants - small government.
Looks as though we can't win either way.
"If Bernard's right, Andrew is getting exactly what he wants - small government."
No, its more likely crony capitalism, not small government. They feel they can control corporate health care with lots of administrators calling the shots. That is why many traditionally trained GPs are very unhappy and the quality, and particularly continuity of care is suffering. The era of a trusted GP you can see all the time has passed. How many people can go and see "Their GP"
While we are on about the Federal Government, did you know that we have a much higher death rate than the USA?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-04-04/covid-19-treatments-death-rate-australia-2021/100021346
"While Australia has a substantially lower number of COVID-19 cases than most countries in the world, its death rate is much higher.
To date, Australia has recorded fewer than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 909 deaths, putting its mortality rate at about 3 per cent.
The US, by comparison, has recorded 29.5 million confirmed cases and 537,200 deaths, meaning its mortality rate is roughly 1.8 per cent.
Dr Tong said the main reason for Australia's comparatively higher death rate was because during Australia's second wave, the virus hit nursing homes "really hard".
There, COVID-19 quickly spread within a frail population, already unwell with other conditions, and who were most vulnerable to dying from the disease."
So, the problem was the aged care sector. And who runs the aged care sector? The Federal government.
No doubt the Feds will be cherry picking the data, like they always do, and blaming everyone else.
At least we can't blame the My Health Record - the aged care sector sees no use for it.
Thats a case fatality rate (CFR), not a Infection fatality rate (IFR). The IFR appears to be around 0.15% so its likely a lot more people had it than were diagnosed. The mortality in over 80s, especially those with metabolic disease can be 5% so I suspect its just a chance thing. Our turn might come this winter, its really impossible to control if the seasonality is right... but the blame game is a popular pastime
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