The projects described below were funded by the National Library of Medicine through the NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region, UCLA Biomedical Library.

A list of previous projects is available on our Project Archive webpage. If you are looking for more specific information about a project please contact us at psr-nnlm@library.ucla.edu

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Express Outreach Awards

Digital Empowerment for Diabetic Patients
San Francisco General Hospital, UCSF/Barnett Briggs Medical Library, San Francisco, CA

Project Director: Joy Graham
Period of Performance: August 2011 - March 2012
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $10,000

The ultimate goal of the project is to improve the health status of disadvantaged diabetic patients by providing them with the computer and internet skills necessary to find and evaluate health information on the web. Because research shows that diabetic patients with higher health literacy levels have better health outcomes than those with lower literacy levels, the project will develop culturally and linguistically appropriate teaching materials to teach both Spanish- and English-speaking diabetic patients from San Francisco General Hospital's outpatient clinics how to use computers and the internet to find reliable health information. The teaching materials will be adapted from the National Institute on Aging's Senior Health Toolkit for Trainers for use with diabetic patients. SFGH's Family Health Clinic's Patient Advisory Boards will assist in writing, revising, and translating the Toolkit, to ensure that the content is linguistically and culturally appropriate for its target audience. SFGH will collaborate with Caminos, a community organization whose mission is to empower Latinos by providing training in digital technology.

Healthy Teens
Huntington Memorial Hospital, Health Sciences Library, Pasadena, CA

Project Director: Sherrill Olsen
Period of Performance: August 2011 - March 2012
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $4,000

Huntington Hospital is proposing a pilot program to increase teen awareness of the necessity of "whole health." Health education outreach to the teen population and to their parents to provide them with enough information to make better decisions is currently one of the unmet needs of the Pasadena community. The goal of the program will be to address common teen health and lifestyle issues and foster awareness of community support resources for teens and their parents. The project aims to pilot this by creating teen-targeted health programs at a local area high school and branches of the Pasadena Public Library in conjunction with a teen health-focused website for ongoing health information needs. The main objectives are to: increase the knowledge and awareness of teen health issues in both teens and adults and increase the consumer's ease and ability to find information in this area in local, print and electronic formats.

Diabetes Information Outreach to the Latino/Hispanic Population of Pomona
Western University of Health Sciences, Harriet K. and Philip Pumerantz Library, Pomona, CA

Project Director: Pat Vader
Period of Performance: August 2011 - March 2012
Project Type: Express Outreach Award
Funding Awarded: $3,600

Western University of Health Sciences in conjunction with the Pomona Public Library will develop and operationalize a diabetes information outreach program aimed at the Hispanic/Latino population of the City of Pomona, Los Angeles County, California. In the computer lab of the Pomona Public Library, the project will conduct bilingual training/diabetes education sessions. Many members of Pomona's Hispanic population do not have access to computers, and by holding the sessions at the PPL lab, they can be made aware of this free resource. Because older Hispanic community members are often not trained in computer use, each session will begin with basic instructions as to how to access the internet, how to search, and specifically, how to access and utilize free health information resources. Following this training segment, a faculty member from WesternU will present information relating to various aspects of diabetes care. Topics may include: proper diet and nutrition; pharmacology (drug interactions, prescriptions, herbal medicine, etc.); the importance of optometric and dental screenings; disaster preparedness; and the care and prevention of wounds.

Cooperative Agreements

Arizona Outreach
University of Arizona, Arizona Health Sciences Library, Tucson, AZ

Project Director: Jeanette L. Ryan
Period of Performance: May 2011 - April 2012
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Funding Awarded: $24,997

The purpose of this project is to: extend the reach of the NN/LM by engaging the staff of the Arizona Health Sciences Library, the NN/LM Resource Library in Arizona; share experience about working with Native American groups and provide recommendations on how to work with urban Native Americans; and share experience in working with Native American groups and provide recommendations on how to work with urban Native Americans. In order to accomplish this, AHSL proposes to: jointly fund an Outreach Librarian who will be responsible for carrying out an outreach program in Arizona that attempts to meet the needs of Arizona health professionals and Arizona communities; determine collaboratively the goals and objectives of the new effort; provide reports that characterize the entire outreach effort in Arizona; build on the successful programs that are a tradition in Arizona; and improve AHSL's in-depth planning skills and research-oriented outreach.

Health Information for Pacific Islanders: An Outreach Program
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) Resource Center, Honolulu, HI

Project Director: Jane Barnwell
Period of Performance: May 2011 - March 2012
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Funding Awarded: $6,457

This outreach effort will target the health practitioners, educators, and government officials in the U.S. Territories in the Pacific. Some activities may involve members of the public. Due to a long history of isolation in the Pacific, there may be little expectation for access to health information, particularly very recent health information. Frequently health workers who do not have extensive education and training provide health care. Only recently has adequate Internet access been available, and even now, access may be restricted to only a few locations, such as community colleges. Perhaps the greatest barrier to health information is not online access, but instead the expectation that it is appropriate to seek health information due to little exposure to quality sources. It is the intent of this project to: increase awareness of health information to Pacific Islanders; encourage the use of health information in making health care decisions; and identify and remove barriers to health information in the U.S. Territories in the Pacific.

Funding Opportunities

Health-related programming is a great way to reach out to your community. Depending on your target audience, you might want to organize a health fair, hold classes to teach seniors to search for health information online, or invite health professionals to speak on relevant topics. In any case, funding can help make your ideas a reality. To learn more about funding opportunities, eligibility, and summaries of actual projects, please visit our Funding Opportunities page.

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