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Media Releases
MARRTC Journalism Researcher Presents at National Conference
Columbia, Mo. (Aug. 24, 2006) For parents of children with chronic diseases, finding the right information to advocate for the child's access to health care can be a challenge. Could the new media be a viable venue to provide such information to parents and caregivers?
This is the topic of a paper presented by Michael J. Grinfeld, J.D., a researcher from the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (MARRTC) at the 89th Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), held this month in San Francisco, CA. In addition to serving as a principal investigator for MARRTC's JAHelp.com project, Grinfeld is also an associate professor of journalism at University of Missouri School of Journalism.
The study, titled "Advocacy Oriented Behavior and Health Care Access:
A Conceptual Model of Web-based Health Communication for Children with Juvenile Arthritis", was co-authored by Grinfeld and two colleagues at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Brian K. Hensel, Ph.D., M.S.PH., and Robin Hoecker, B.A.
Using the example of www.JAHelp.org, the study argues that advocacy oriented access behavior can be encouraged through new media and constitutes an important targeted outcome of health care communication.
The JAHelp website, launched in July 2006, was developed by MARRTC as a web portal for parents to navigate the complex system of state and federal programs, laws, and policies designed to advocate for children with juvenile arthritis. In addition to providing information, the website also offers an online worksheet to help families collect the information they'll need to apply for various benefits.
AEJMC is a nonprofit, educational association with a worldwide member base of some 3,500 journalism and mass communication faculty, administrators, students and media professionals.
The Missouri Arthritis Research Rehabilitation and Training Center (MARRTC) was established in 1971 at the University of Missouri-Columbia Arthritis Center. MARRTC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (H133B031120) and is the only federally funded arthritis rehabilitation research and training center in the country.
As part of the MU Health Communication Research Center (HCRC), MARRTC's mission is to become a national leader in the areas of disability management and communication, improve the quality of life and promote independent living among people who have arthritis and arthritic conditions. MARRTC's core message is "Disability is everyone's issue."
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