ABSTRACT
Chapter overview 634 Historical aspects 634 Empowerment 636 The growth of consumer health information 637
as a specialism
Writing patient information leaflets 638 The role of the internet in providing 642
health information Conclusion 644 References 645
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of this chapter, the reader should be able to accomplish the following: 1 Appreciate the historical aspects to information
giving in the NHS 2 Understand the parameters of information giving
in the modern NHS 3 Design and write a child or family information
leaflet following procedural guidelines 4 Recognise the role of the internet in providing
health information 5 Acknowledge the deficiencies of web-based
information 6 Appreciate factors that hinder the giving of
information to children and their families
standards. Written communication has major advantages over verbal information, not least being the reality that verbal information stored within the brain degrades very quickly. Glasper and Burge1
have indicated that this inability of stressed people to retain verbal information is a very good reason for communicating through different mediums such as the written word.
