Finding patient education materials in diverse languages and staying up to date with cultural competency tools and training are important goals for health care providers. Help the providers you serve by sharing these resources with them!

• How to Order National Institutes of Health Publications In Non-English Language http://nnlm.gov/mcr/resources/community/multilingualNIH.html
• Consumer Health Information in Many Languages http://nnlm.gov/outreach/consumer/multi.html
• Cultural Competency Resources http://nnlm.gov/mcr/resources/community/competency.html

Developing Proposed Requirements to Advance Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient-Centered Care for the Hospital Accreditation Program
The Joint Commission, with funding from The Commonwealth Fund, is developing proposed accreditation requirements for hospitals to advance effective communication, cultural competence, and patient-centered care. This 18-month project will explore how diversity, culture, language, and health literacy issues can be better incorporated into current Joint Commission standards or drafted into new requirements. In conjunction with the proposed requirements, The Joint Commission is developing an implementation guide that will help hospitals meet the proposed requirements and provide best practice information and educational resources and tools. Additional project information can be accessed at: http://tinyurl.com/5fhryd See the Joint Commission’s Culturally Competent Patient Centered Care for Hospital Accreditation Program Wiki at http://tinyurl.com/pzn5mw [posted on Health Literacy Listserv] scb

This exciting new tool for community health education will offer free access for organizations and community groups to a large variety of videos related to refugee health and resettlement. The RHP Lending Library will maintain a comprehensive collection of educational materials about refugee populations. There are many topics, presented in multiple languages, ranging from tuberculosis, lead safety, and domestic abuse to the crisis in Darfur and dental health. The library currently holds over 60 videos, and they expect it to continue to grow each year. To check out the MDH Refugee Health Lending Library, visit: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/refugee/library/index.html [scb]

Join us for our next Breezing with the RML on Wednesday, June 17th at 10 am MT/11 am CT. Follow this URL to join the meeting: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/mcr All you’ll need is your Internet connection and your phone. Sign as a guest with your first and last names. This month’s topics are:

The Alphabet Soup of STDs: Facts and Resources on HIV/AIDS and STDs
Siobhan Champ-Blackwell, Community Outreach Liaison, will cover some basic facts on HIV/AIDs and STDs in the United States and will explore NLM and other online resources to provide the librarian a toolbox to use when discussing these intimate and private topics.

The Value of Health Science Libraries in the MCR
Libraries have been submitting their value calculations using the Retail Value Calculator (http://nnlm.gov/mcr/evaluation/calculator.html). Betsy Kelly, Assessment & Evaluation Liaison, will share the results of data collected from libraries across the country. Join the discussion about your library’s value and how you are using this knowledge in your own institution.

While at the Medical Library Association Conference, I had the opportunity to hear from librarians doing outreach:

Diane Schwartz works with the Somali Bantu Project in Buffalo New York. You can learn about their amazing work with mothers and children at http://www.bantuhealth.org/ The Project Materials link includes a guide they created and the “Listen and Learn” link inlcudes audio files in Maay Maay and Kizigua languages.

Sabrina Kurtz-Ross spoke about the Medical Library Association’s Health Information Literacy Curriculum which includes a Powerpoint slide show, a detailed script, notes for presenters, background reading, and tips for librarians, including and ideas quotes from the pilot site librarians that tested the curriculum.
http://mlanet.org/resources/healthlit/index.html

Karen Schilling from the Indiana School of Library and Information Science spoke about the resources they created with the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center to provide the public with an easy to use resource for information when they or someone in their family is diagnosed with cancer. http://cancerinfo.cancer.iu.edu/cancerportal/public/ [scb]

http://nihseniorhealth.gov/medicare/toc.html
An easy-to-read overview, “Medicare Basics for Caregivers,” is now available at NIHSeniorHealth. This brief, yet comprehensive introduction to Medicare gives caregivers the basics and helps them find answers to their questions. The complete NIH News Release is available online at: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/may2009/nia-13.htm [scb]

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has released a new report called Hard Times in the Heartland: Health Care in Rural America, outlining the health care challenges facing rural communities. Hard Times in the Heartland indicates that nearly 50 million people in rural America face challenges accessing health care. Not only do these Americans face higher rates of poverty, they report more health problems, are more likely to be uninsured, and have less access to a primary health care providers than do Americans living in urban areas. http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hardtimes/ruralreport.pdf

[posted on Kansas Rural Health Information Service] scb

A lot of work has been going on updating the MCR web site. Here are just some of the pages that have been reorganized or reviewed to make use of the web site easier.

The Health Information main index page http://nnlm.gov/mcr/resources/ has been redesigned to include information by audience as well as promotional materials. The online tutorial to use in helping novice computer users find and evaluate health information has been updated http://nnlm.gov/mcr/ctc/index.html

The Minority Health index http://nnlm.gov/mcr/resources/community/minority.html and three of the racial ethnic pages have been updated:

• African American Health http://nnlm.gov/mcr/resources/community/ethnic/aahealth.html
• Latino American Health http://nnlm.gov/mcr/resources/community/ethnic/latamer.html
• Native American Health http://nnlm.gov/mcr/resources/community/ethnic/native.html

[scb]

The United States Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a new site today dedicated to healthcare reform. www.healthreform.gov provides a platform to share documents, thoughts and ideas. [da]

The Maternal and Child Health Library released a new edition of the knowledge path, Spanish-Language Health Resources. The knowledge path points to health hotlines and helplines, web sites, publications, and databases for health professionals and consumers. The knowledge path presents Spanish-language resources covering a wide range of health topics, including many of interest to the maternal and child health (MCH) community. The knowledge path is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_spanish.html. A Spanish-language version of the 2009 edition is also being developed. Knowledge paths on other maternal and child health (MCH) topics are available at http://mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/index.html [scb]