Information at your fingertips aids in education
Information at your fingertips aids in education
Getting the scoop on bioterrorism for staff, patients
When anthrax hit the headlines, The Patient Education Institute at the University of Iowa in Iowa City accelerated the development of its module on anthrax and added a section on bioterrorism.
"Anthrax by itself is a rare infectious disease and it had a low priority on our list of modules under development for our X-Plain learning system," says Moe Ajam, PhD, company president.
Once completed, the interactive program was made available to organizations to download onto their web sites so that the public could be more easily educated.
There are several ways health care and corporate staff can use the Anthrax and Bioterrorism module, says Ajam. His suggestions include the following:
- To run the multimedia module, they can link to The Patient Education Institute web site: www.patient-education.com/anthrax/anthrax. html.
- To run the multimedia module and review other resources, they can link to MedlinePlus: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/anthrax.html.
- They can download the module and have their webmasters install it on their web sites: www.patient-education.com/anthrax/.
- They can print the Reference Summary PDF file that comes with the module and provide it to their patients and consumers: www.patient-education.com/anthrax/anthrax.html.
As the public clamors for information, the need to act quickly is vital for patient education managers. Staff need reliable information so they can address consumers’ questions quickly. Here are a few more contacts to aid you in your search:
- www.mayoclinic.com — click under "Coping with war" to read article on anthrax that expands into mental health issues;
- www.healthri.org — this is the Rhode Island Department of Health’s Bioterrorism Preparedness Program web site, written by Greg Banner, an international expert on bioterrorism. The information also is available in Spanish;
- www.hopkins-biodefense.org — prepared by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies in collaboration with the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and designed to aid clinicians in their approach to identifying and treating anthrax.
For information to help consumers cope with the psychological aspects of bioterrorism try the following web sites:
- www.apa.org — the American Psychological Association’s information on coping with terrorism;
- www.aacap.org — the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has information on talking with children and helping them cope with trauma;
- www.psych.org — the American Psychiatric Association has information on disaster responses and coping;
- www.ncptsd.org — the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder offers self-help for managing post traumatic stress disorder linked to the Sept. 11 attack;
- www.nimh.nih.gov — the National Institute of Mental Health has information on post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, and coping strategies for adults, children, and adolescents.
For more information about the educational module on anthrax produced by The Patient Education Institute, contact:
- Moe Ajam, PhD, President, The Patient Education Institute, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. Telephone: (319) 335-4614. E-mail: moe-ajam@ patient-education.com.
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