A New Toolkit for Evaluating Health Education Materials

The California Family Health Council, Inc. (CFHC) is pleased to announce a new resource entitled Evaluating Health Education Materials: A Toolkit on Meeting the Title X Information and Education Guidelines.

Originally designed to help Title X Delegate Agencies in California offer their clients culturally and linguistically appropriate health education materials and services, the toolkit can easily be tailored to meet the needs of other programs, with or without Title X funding.

Find Out How to Get the Toolkit

Addressing Information and Education Needs Among Family Planning Clients

If you are a Title X funded program, this Toolkit will provide concrete and creative suggestions for meeting the TitleX I&E guidelines. Even if your agency is not Title X-funded it will help you better serve the information and education needs of your clients.

The Toolkit begins by highlighting the theoretical framework and rationale behind the I&E regulations. It answers such questions as:

• Why is it important to evaluate health education materials?
• What is health literacy?
• What are the challenges many clients face?
• What is linguistic and cultural competency?

When health education materials are easy to read and culturally acceptable to the clients served, you, as a health care provider, can enhance your services and improve your clients’ care.

Six Steps for Meeting I&E Guidelines

The Toolkit outlines a basic six-step process for evaluating health education materials and meeting the Title X guidelines.

Step 1: Getting Started gives you concrete suggestions for creating protocols and a customized, realistic plan for meeting the Title X I&E requirements.

Step 2: Choosing health education materials to evaluate explains how your agency can select health education materials to evaluate. It will suggest ways you can prioritize the evaluation of health education materials, including those already being used.

Step 3: Evaluating for linguistic and cultural competency provides guidelines and tools you need to effectively evaluate materials for medical accuracy, reading level, appropriate use of graphics, and cultural appropriateness for the client population served.

Step 4: Gathering feedback from clients provides you guidelines for involving the client population in the material evaluation process. It outlines how you can form and manage a formal Information and Education (I&E) community advisory committee. It also provides other creative ways to get community feedback when needed.

Step 5: Documenting the process outlines how you can keep proper documentation of the materials evaluation process. Even if you are not Title X funded, this step can be helpful in ensuring that the materials you use are client-friendly and appropriate.

Step 6: Getting ready for a site evaluation helps you, as a Title X Delegate Agency, prepare for the I&E component of your site evaluation. It provides information about what to expect during the site evaluation and what you’ll need to do afterwards.

Toolkit Assistance and Training is Available

CFHC can provide technical assistance and training to agencies on how to use the Toolkit and how to implement its guidelines, protocols, and recommendations. Delegate Agencies in California should contact their Area Manager for training dates and locations.

For more information about our trainings, contact Chuck Marquardt, Lead Program Trainer, at: (213) 386-5614 ext. 4583, or via e-mail at marquardtc@cfhc.org.

The Toolkit is also available for purchase from the CFHC Store and as part of the Healthedworks.org subscription service. Find out more.