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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Luz Santana, MA and Dan Rothstein, EdD. The Right Question Project, Inc., 2464 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 314, Cambridge, MA 02140, 617-492-1900, luz@rightquestion.org

Asking questions and focusing effectively on decisions are essential elements of a productive patient-provider relationship. But, question-asking and decision-making has traditionally been carried out entirely by health care professionals, except for the most highly educated or empowered patient families. Patients in low-income communities rarely ask questions or participate in key decision-making processes that affect them. Instead, they frequently demonstrate a range of behaviors that undermine their own health care and their relationship with their health care providers, including: failure to keep appointments; reluctance to communicate concerns to providers; difficulty following through on provider suggestions; inappropriate cessation of medication, and other indicators of inadequate understanding of how to best monitor and improve their own health. The Right Question Project has developed simple methods for teaching traditionally disengaged patients to formulate their own questions and focus effectively on key decisions affecting their health. Patients are then better able to: organize their thoughts; communicate what they don't understand; prioritize what they want to know; take greater ownership over their own health care; and are more engaged with their health care providers. RQP methods are remarkably simple and have been effectively used in low-income communities to address a wide range of issues, including education, welfare, housing, and some pilot applications to health care and mental health. The poster session will present examples of the methods for learning how to formulate questions and focus on decisions; presentations of models for teaching the methods in existing health care provider – patient encounters, and the range of outcomes.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to

• Describe The Right Question Project (RQP) methods and their value for teaching patients to formulate questions and focus on decisions.
• Articulate how RQP methods can be used in their work.

Keywords: Public Health Education, Underserved Populations

Related Web page: www.rightquestion.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No