Community Concepts gets grant to research health communication

PARIS - Two local nonprofits will share a $30,000 research grant.

Joan Churchill, director of development and family services at Community Concepts, said a grant has been awarded by the Maine Health Access Foundation [MHAF] to Community Concepts and Tri-County Mental Health.

"They [MHAF] sent out a request for propsals to do research on several topics related to providing heath care. Tri-County and we decided that we could do this and applied as a collaborative effort," said Churchill.

The question MHAF wants answered is how they can best communicate to people in vulnerable populations what their rights to health care are and how can get the care they need. Its a very basic question that is as much in the field of market research or educational psychology as in social services, yet there is a void in available knowledge.

How to let the people who need the message know there's something to know, is the challenge.

"I suspect that we will find there are real differences between age groups," said Churchill. "I'm a reader, but not everybody is. Younger people want to use the internet - they're a Facebook generation."

But the questions don't end there. For instance, will "Facebookers" look to internet sources for information about their health care? If not, where will they seek it? How can the information be presented so those in need will be able to get it easily and understand what they get? Also a target for the research will be the differences between vulnerable populations. For example, will all people below the poverty line react the same to a particular marketing tool, or will some differ?

Churchill says she and her Tri-County MH counterpart (still to be named), will begin by holding focus groups, then experiment with some of the suggestions that emerge. The project will begin in January and continue until September.

The MHAF was formed 10 years ago, after Blue Cross of Maine became a for-profit corporation, Churchill said, as a means to keep the public informed about health care issues.