Tip Sheet on Creating Oral Health Patient Handouts

The National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC) is pleased to announce the availability of "A Way with Words: Guidelines for Writing Oral Health Materials for Audiences with Limited Literacy".

This resource was developed to assist professionals working to improvethe oral health of infants, children, adolescents, and their families.

"A Way with Words" provides tips to help those who produce educational materials make them easy for everyone to understand, and thus more useful. The tip sheet offers suggestions for how to choose words; set an appropriate tone; and craft sentences, paragraphs, lists, and headings that communicate most effectively with people with limited literacy.

Ideas for how to design documents and how to present unfamiliar terminology are also presented. A list of resources for more information is included.

Single or multiple print copies of this resource are available at no charge from the HRSA Information Center, P.O. Box 2910, Merrifield, VA22116, phone: (888) ASK-HRSA (275-4772), fax: (703) 821-2098, e-mail: ask@hrsa.gov

Electronic copies, in .pdf format, are available at no cost from OHRC's Web site and can be photocopied for use.

Bone Marrow Transplantation Audiovisuals

A number of bone marrow transplantation resources available on video and DVD are available from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). And the best part? Single copies of these items can be ordered for free!

NMDP publications include:

"Forward! Living Life after Transplant"
"This educational magazine and DVD helps teens and young adults know what to expect before, during and after transplant. It features five young transplant recipients who share their journey and offer advice for dealing with physical and physiological changes, as well as relationships, school and self-image post transplant."

"The Paths to Progress"
"This bilingual audio CD uses easily understood language to explain the transplant process. It was created to reach people who learn by listening, Mandarin speakers and people who are English language learners."

"Discovery to Recovery: A Child's Guide to Bone Marrow Transplant"
"An award-winning educational, interactive DVD and booklet for children ages five to nine who will be undergoing a marrow or cord blood transplant. The DVD tells the transplant story through two engaging puppets and provides interviews from children and their families who have been through the transplant process. The accompanying booklet is designed as a supportive tool to promote transplant discussion within the family."

"Safer Sunning" Resource in Spanish and English

The brochure, "Safer Sunning in Seven Steps", available online only in text format, describes the dangers of harmful rays from the sun, sunlamps, and tanning beds and who is at extra risk. The seven steps to safer sunning include tips for using sunscreen products and how to check the skin for signs of skin cancer. This resource, developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is available in English and in Spanish.

Healthy Weight Resources for Children

"Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition" (We Can!) is a national program designed for families and communities to help children achieve a healthy weight. We Can! provides families and communities with a variety of resources and materials focused on three behaviors: improved food choices, increased physical activity, and reduced screen time. Patient materials include a tipsheet for parents, a parent handbook, tools for calculating Body Mass Index, worksheets for logging "screen time" and blue "We Can!" wristbands. Some of the materials are available in Spanish. This program was developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in collaboration with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Cancer Institute.

PTSD Resources in Arabic and Chinese

The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies announces three new fact sheets on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) available in Chinese and Arabic. Each fact sheet is available in .PDF format and includes the following titles: Children and Trauma, Mass Disaster and Trauma, and Trauma, Loss and Traumatic Grief.

Talking with Children About School Violence

The reliable resource KidsHealth.org has released tips for parents seeking to reassure their children after the most recent episode of school violence. Although school violence is rare (fewer than 1% of homicides occur on school grounds or on the way to or from school), the authors provide valuable suggestions such as:

Share your own feelings
Start the conversation
Tell them in concrete terms what will be done to make them feel safe
Be truthful about the news but do not go in to more detail than your child wants to know or can absorb
Carefully monitor exposure to violence over the television - if necessary, turn it off