Health information online 2

A Guide to Health Information Online – Feb 09

A Guide to Health Information Online

For Beginners

Health Information Online guide Updated February 2015

An Introduction to Finding Health Information Online As our health is so vital to our happiness and wellbeing, it is important that we are able to find trustworthy health information. With more of us turning to the internet for help and with the massive growth of available health websites, it is often hard to know where to start and who to trust. This taster session will show you how to find good quality information online and how to search a few of the key health websites. By the end of this session you will be able to do the following:

Be aware of ‘Reading Well Books on Prescription’

Locate and reserve recommended health and wellbeing titles on the Newcastle Libraries’ website

Find good quality health information online using the Delicious social bookmarking site

Find your nearest GP, dentist and hospital on the NHS choices website

Compare hospitals online and add your thoughts on what you thought of a hospital on the NHS choices website

Find out the symptoms of an illness and locate information on treatments and side effects on NHS choices

Check if a health story in the media is accurate on the NHS choices website

Find out your Body Mass Index (BMI) on the NHS choices website

The health and wellbeing section on the Newcastle Libraries website: www.newcastle.gov.uk/healthandwellbeing

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/healthandwellbeing


We have always provided health information in our libraries, including leaflets and books on a variety of subjects. However, in the last few years, we have also started to offer collections on common mental health problems and dementia. This scheme is called Reading Well Books on Prescription and the collections are chosen and endorsed by a large number of health organisation such as The Royal College of GPs, The Royal college of Psychiatrists, The Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia UK (to name but a few). The collections mean that you can be ensured of quality and trusted resources. The common mental health collection is aimed at adults experiencing common conditions including depression, anxiety, stress low self-esteem, anger, chronic pain, eating problems, chronic fatigue, obsessions and compulsions, panic, phobias, worry and relationship problems. It is primarily suitable for people who are not phased by reading material and follow the suggested activities. The dementia collection has been developed for people with dementia and their carers. It is aimed at people who are able to read and manage book based content. It includes material for a range of reading levels, in a variety of different formats. It includes the following:

Information and advice about dementia and normal ageing

Support following diagnosis

Practical help for carers

Personal accounts of people with dementia and their relatives and carers

Suggested therapeutic activities. The collection includes ‘Pictures to share books’ which combine pictures and text for adults in a meaningful way to help stimulate conversation between families, professionals and those with dementia. You can find out more information about Pictures to Share at http://picturestoshare.co.uk/ or on the Newcastle Libraries Health and wellbeing website under ‘Pictures to Share’.

http://picturestoshare.co.uk/


Details about the Reading Well Books on Prescription schemes and the titles of the books can be found on the ‘Health and wellbeing section of the Newcastle Libraries website’. Go to www.newcastle.gov.uk/healthandwelling and click on Reading Well Books on Prescription OR Reading Well Books on Prescription Dementia.

You can also find more information on the national website http://reading-well.org.uk/

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/healthandwelling

http://reading-well.org.uk/


Details of books and how to reserve them By summer 2015, we are hoping that the dementia collection titles will be listed on Newcastle Libraries website so you can directly see them on the catalogue and reserve them online. However, in the meantime, you can go on the library catalogue separately and type in a title and reserve them yourself. Go to http://library.newcastle.gov.uk/ and use the search box.

http://library.newcastle.gov.uk/


However, you can directly reserve the common mental health condition books. Go to www.newcastle.gov.uk/healthandwellbeing and click on ‘Reading Well Books on Prescription’. The recommended titles are divided up into useful subject categories, indicating the title, author and class number (the class number is the number which tells you where to find the book on the shelves in the library). To find out more about a particular book, you click on the title of the one that you’re interested in.



After you have clicked on the title you will see the screens below:

ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique number to identify each book which is published. You can search by this number on our catalogue and booksellers search their databases with this number.

This is where you would log in with your library card number and pin. Remember not to leave any spaces when typing your card number

The summary note gives you a short description of the book to help you decided whether or not it would be of interest to you.

If you are interested in this book, you can click on the ‘Reserve’ button. This will mean that the book will be reserved for you to pick up at any of our Newcastle Libraries. All you need is your library card details and pin number.


The ‘Library’ column indicates which library the copies of the books are located at

If you click on the plus button, it will tell you where you’ll find the book in the library. It will also tell you how many copies there are and if any are available for loan

The ‘Status’ indicates if the book is out on loan to another customer or if it’s on the shelf

If anyone has written a review of the title the details will be here

If there are other books by the same author on the system, then it will appear here.


How to Access Good Quality Trusted Health Websites

Newcastle Libraries have put together a list of websites that you can trust on a number of different topics, including health. To make sharing those website links easily with you, we have put these websites onto a social bookmarking site called ‘Delicious’. To access ‘Delicious’ go back to the bottom of the health and wellbeing page (www.newcastle.gov.uk/healthandwellbeing) and click on ‘range of recommended health related websites’ When you click on ‘Delicious’ you will see the following screen:

You can either scroll through all of the health pages to browse through the bookmarked list, or use the related tags section to view websites only on a related subject. We have included both national and local trusted health websites for you to choose from.

To view a website you simply click on the blue title

Related tags section gives you the option to find websites on a particular health issue / topic



NHS Choices Website NHS choices (www.nhs.uk/) is a fantastic website which has a massive range of services, advice and health information.

Click on ‘Services near you’ to find your nearest GPs, Hospitals, clinics, dentists and many more services. Plus compare hospitals for treatments in your area.

Click on ‘Health News’ to see if the health stories in the media are accurate and to find an unbiased look at the research behind the headlines.

Click on ‘Live Well’ to find a range of useful health check tools, such as BMI weight calculator and different topics on healthy living, including stop smoking, pregnancy, alcohol, fitness, losing weight and much more.

Click on ‘Communities’ to access NHS choices blogs where people come to talk about how they manage their medical condition or help someone else to cope.

Click on ‘Health A-Z’ to have hundreds of conditions explained. This section includes details of symptoms, causes, treatments and advice on how to live with the condition.

Click on ‘Video’s to see a range of short films on different conditions, which includes advice from experts.

Click on ‘Care and Support’ for information and help for those who care for and look after others, including legal and financial advice.

http://www.nhs.uk/


NHS Choices Website Quiz

Give this quiz ago, to help explore the NHS choices website.

1. In the Health Tools section, use the smoking calculator to work out how much a

person who smokes 20 day would spend in 6 months on cigarettes. 2. Using the A-Z section, list the possible long-term symptoms for a woman infected

by Chlamydia, if left untreated. 3. Using the A-Z section, name some recommended complementary therapies that

are used for treating asthma 4. Using the A-Z section, name the 2 main complications for Deep Vein Thrombosis 5. Joyce lives in Newcastle (NE1 8AX), which is her nearest GPs? 6. What is the common side effect of having a lumbar puncture test? 7. Using the search box, what does F.A.S.T stand for? 8. Using Health News section, find a report on one of this week’s headlines and then

state where the study came from 9. Happy birthday, William! He’s 32 today. He weighs himself every birthday and has

learned that he weighs 90 Kg. He’s 190cm tall. Is he overweight (use the Live Well section).

10. Ben needs an operation for a hip replacement and wants to find out which hospital in the area performs the most hip replacement operations last year. His postcode is NE3 3HD.


Other Useful Services / Tools Available On the NHS Website

There are many different services and lots of advice and information you can access on the NHS choices website. In this session, we have only touched upon a fraction of the services offered. Please see below a selection of other useful sections which you can have a look at in your own time.

Local sport and fitness teams

Find local sports and fitness teams by clicking on ‘Services near you’. Select browse ‘services a-z’ and click on ‘S’ and then ‘Sports and Fitness’.

Downloadable Alcohol tracker

Use the alcohol tracker to calculate alcohol units and keep a drinks diary on your desktop. Go to ‘Live Well’ section and click on ‘Health Check Tools’ and then ‘Alcohol’. There is also a downloadable version for iphones.

Pregnancy Planner

The pregnancy planner contains all you need to know to have a healthy and happy pregnancy whether you’re planning to have a baby, are pregnant, or have just given birth. This planner will make sure you get the care that's right for you. Go to ‘Live Well’ Section and click on ‘Pregnancy’ and then ‘Pregnancy planning toolkit’.

5 a day Meal Planner Use the 5 a day meal planner tool to plan your meals and create a shopping list. Go to ‘Live Well’ section and click on ‘Health Check’ tools and then ‘Healthy eating’.

Health issues and advice for different ages, stages and

genders

Find out what health issues face different genders at different stages and get advice from the medical experts. Go to ‘Live Well’ section and select ‘All Live Well topics’. Look under ‘Men’s health’ or ‘Women’s health’ and find the age group you want.

Embarrassing Conditions

Go to ‘Videos’ section and type in the search box ‘Embarrassing Conditions’ to become informed on those issues that are often too embarrassing to talk about.

Finding other services in addition to GPs and

Hospitals

There are a range of services which you can find by clicking ‘Find and Choose Services’. These include bereavement support, diabetes clinics, dementia support, internet pharmacies, complimentary therapies, psychological therapy services, weight loss support and sexual health.


Interesting health related directories & interactive tools

Website Web Address

Health A-Z - Conditions and treatments

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pages/BodyMap.aspx?Index=A

Medicines A-Z http://www.nhs.uk/medicine-guides/pages/default.aspx

Common health questions http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/home.aspx

Personal health budgets http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Yourchoices/personal-health-budgets/Pages/about-personal-health-budgets.aspx

BMI healthy weight calculator

http://www.nhs.uk/tools/pages/healthyweightcalculator.aspx?WT.mc_id=101007

Healthy eating self-assessment

http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/HealthyEating.aspx

Fitness self-assessment http://www.nhs.uk/tools/pages/fitness.aspx

Other Tools (e.g. Heart age tool, Blood pressure quiz, Sleep self-assement)

http://www.nhs.uk/tools/pages/toolslibrary.aspx



http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/HealthyEating.aspx


A selection of recommended websites (taken from Delicious)

Website Web Address

Centre for Mental Health Works to improve the quality of life for people with mental health problems.

www.scmh.org.uk/info/mental_health_information.aspx

Depression Alliance The leading UK charity for people with depression provides information and support services to those who are affected by it.

www.depressionalliance.org

Drink Aware Website with alcohol tips and advice.

www.drinkaware.co.uk

Eating Disorders Association Information about eating disorders, how to get help and online support.

www.b-eat.co.uk

Frank A to Z list of substances explains appearance and use, effects, chances of getting hooked, health risks and UK law. Includes information on peer pressure

www.talktofrank.com

Glasgow STEPS A website with information, assessment and self help regarding stress problems. It deals with common stress such as depression, anxiety, phobias, sleep issues, self-esteem, panic attacks, anger, bereavement and much more

www.glasgowsteps.com

Hearing Voices Network User network, information about strategies and support groups.

www.hearing-voices.org

MDF The Bipolar Organisation Works to enable people affected by bipolar disorder/ manic depression to take control of their lives.

www.mdf.org.uk


Website Web Address

Mental Health Net Promotes online mental health education and provides up-to-date information of mental health and illness topics.

www.mentalhelp.net

Newcastle Carers Centre A local independent charity working citywide to provide dedicated support and information to adult carers living in Newcastle or caring for someone living in Newcastle.

www.newcastlecarers.org.uk

NHS Life Check NHS Life Check is a free service to help you find out how you are doing.

www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/LifeCheck.aspx

MIND Downloadable information leaflets and advice on mental health problems for both young people and adults.

www.mind.org.uk

Mindapples An independent organisation dedicated to promoting mentally healthy living for everyone.

www.mindapples.org

MoodGYM A free self help programme to teach cognitive behaviour therapy skills to people vulnerable to depression and anxiety.

www.moodgym.anu.edu.au

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence Mental Health and Behavioural Conditions - details of all the clinical guidelines, published or in development.

http://guidance.nice.org.uk/Topic/MentalHealthBehavioural

PsychNet-UK Contains links to articles on mental illness, fact sheets, articles, forums, software downloads and research sources. Designed for professionals, students and the layperson.

www.psychnet-uk.com

http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/LifeCheck.aspx

http://www.mind.org.uk/

http://www.mindapples.org/

http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/

http://www.moodgym.anu.edu.au/

http://www.psychnet-uk.com/


Website Web Address

Psychological Services (Newcastle) Newcastle Psychological Services aim to help residents of Newcastle who may be experiencing mental health difficulties. Use this website to do self checks, refer yourself and find advice and trusted information.

www.newcastlehealthyminds.nhs.uk

Rethink Information on different types of mental illnesses and disorders, what causes mental illness and treatments and therapies.

www.rethink.org

Royal College of Psychiatrists Readable, user friendly and accurate information about mental health problems.

www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfo.aspx

Sane Aims to raise awareness of mental illness, campaign to improve services and to initiate and fund research into the causes of serious mental illness through its research centre.

www.sane.org.uk

Understanding Childhood Provides downloadable information leaflets for families and childcare professionals to help raise emotionally secure children.

www.understandingchildhood.net

http://www.newcastlehealthyminds.nhs.uk/

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfo.aspx

http://www.sane.org.uk/

http://www.understandingchildhood.net/


Health Watch Newcastle Healthwatch Newcastle is an independent organisation set up to: 1) Find out what people think about local health and social care services (GP’s hospitals,

dentists, opticians, care homes and home care) 2) Make sure providers and commissioners of health and social care services listen to what

people say We want to hear from you if:

You have an experience or opinion about using these services that you want to share

You want information about current health and social care services in Newcastle

You are unhappy with your care or the care of a friend or relative

Tell us about your experiences of using health and social care services in Newcastle

What was good

What was bad

What could be better?

We provide free, confidential and independent information about health and social care services in Newcastle. We can help you:

When you don't know what to do if you are unhappy with your care or the care of a friend or relative

When you need information about health and social care services in Newcastle

Telephone Website Email

0808 178 9282 www.healthwatchnewcastle.org.uk [email protected]

http://www.healthwatchnewcastle.org.uk/

Health information online 2

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