106 - Know More & Feel Better!

Background: The overarching goal of this program was and continues to partner with the Orange County Library System as well as Rotary Clubs of Florida offering free virtual health literacy education and resources to all community members no matter their race, ethnicity, age, gender, location nor economic status. By teaching participants how and where to locate reputable and timely health information, people were and continue to be empowered by better understanding their diagnosis, treatment, medication, benefits of preventative care, healthy lifestyle habits and even how to better communicate with their healthcare team. When patients know more, they feel better!

Description: The virtual sessions were created and presented by Jessica Daly, Consumer Health Librarian. Both community partners, the Orange County Library System and various Rotary Clubs of Florida, utilized Zoom as their virtual/online platform. Jessica serves as a guest presenter and health research expert. Community members join live sessions/meetings where they are able to ask questions and/or email Jessica after the session with personal or more detailed health information requests. Jessica shares free health resources and services that are available to the public during each of the virtual sessions. After 1.5 years, the reactions to the sessions are all positive and many participants reach out to Jessica later for further assistance which improves their health literacy, overall health and quality of life. Both the OCLS and the participating Rotary Clubs of Florida use surveys and gather participant feedback.

Conclusion: This program has been in effect for 1.5 years and continues today. So far we have reached over 1000+ community members during live virtual health education sessions and the number continues to grow weekly. Participants come from various races/ethnicities. Participation in virtual health literacy sessions grew from 57 in FY2019-20 to 90 in FY2020-21, which was a 57.8% increase. The number of live participants increased from 2258 in FY2019-20 to 3221 during FY2020-21, which was an increase of 42.6%. The sessions for the OCLS and Rotary Clubs accounted for nearly a third of these numbers during FY2020-21. She will be presenting at the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare 2021 as well as the Global Health Literacy Summit 2021.