[Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/bmj-oversimplified-efforts-counter-heal... ]
Thank you Neil, a short but informative opinion piece (will post with link to HIFA).
Following your lead - some thoughts using the 'three oustanding concerns' by Purnat and Clark - which seem to close a circle?
A cacophony of definitions
There is much behind not so much what constitutes a 'healthier information environment', as how to achieve it?
Clinical training, education and competency assessment understandably places emphasis on interpersonal skills, giving 'bad' news, person-centredness, record keeping (paper - IT). But as Purnat and Clark suggest there is a marked contrast between consultations, clinical encounters 1-1, 1-carer, 1-family, 1-small community group; and the life of health information (or its death) in the public arena, the social media-ted world - where 'cacophony' is the often the rule.
We write of the features of Web 1.0 - Web 4.0, but is technology's negative side resulting in 'Instant Gratification 1.0 - 4.0'?
As noted, values and trust are called into question, focus and ability to attend also. As shared before - a useful document on definitions is:
Wardle, Claire, and Hossein Derakhshan. 2017. “Information Disorder: Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy Making.” 162317GBR. Council of Europe. https://edoc.coe.int/en/media/7495-information-disorder-toward-an-interd...
Medicalising a systemic challenge to health
The volume (bits), range, sources, security, ethics, forms ... of information and multicontextual nature of 'health' and social care:
self-carenon-clinical care of anotherinformal care of otherclinical care of other (home, hospital..., community..)e-care - telecare ...language, concepts ... systems (Purnat and Clark)
- means we have to shift constantly between description and evaluation (salience, truth, cost...) - keeping patients, clients, carers with us; and us with them: communication.
The idea of infodemic is also very useful here. Especially with the author's pointing to the structural dimension instead of individualisation.
COVID-10 did highlight scope / scale in a way always known (global public health, no less), but now recognised and realised in a new way:
Individual - Collective (from dyad - global population).
Health systems & services - should provide a social safety net. There seems a general sense that take away 'formal medicine / healthcare' and we individualise by placing responsibility on the individual. Implicit in your comment, and not 'declared' as it might be in the text(?) is prevention (beyond the Institutional references) and this in turn must build upon basic literacies - and access to education:
- reading writing arithmatic - 3Rs
- health
- tech
- information
- social media
- cultural
- emotional
- spiritual
- financial ...
Purnat and Clark note the question (challenge) of how we frame (contextualise - conceptualise) these issues. We need a framework that transcends:
- biomedical model
- bio-psycho-social model (post to follow)
Of course - there is a model/framework - that can help capture the complexity involved - determinants (All), intersectionality, self - collective - Planet.
More complex than communications alone
We - humanity - are here by virtue of our hands, vision, and intellect to see and distinguish the horizon and vertical in ways beyond the perceptual.
I just heard (BBC Radio 4) how boys are more likely to have a smartphone than a father who lives with them (Moral Maze - this evening):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00298tz
As we marvel at the ever increasing ability of robotic hands and bodies, beyond communication - we do need to consider what we literally 'pickup' and at what age?
It is positive that phone access in schools is starting to be controlled (Australia, Denmark).
We would not want a child to be able to pickup a bottle/box of tablets (even if tamper-proof), what other things should we be concerned about?
Peter Jones
Community Mental Health Nurse, Part-time Tutor and Researcher
Blogging at "Welcome to the QUAD"
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/h2cm
HIFA profile: Peter Jones is a Community Mental Health Nurse with the NHS in NW England and a a part-time tutor at Bolton University. Peter champions a conceptual framework - Hodges' model - that can be used to facilitate personal and group reflection and holistic / integrated care. A bibliography is provided at the blog 'Welcome to the QUAD' (http://hodges-model.blogspot.com). h2cmuk AT yahoo.co.uk