Handouts for Parents, Teens, and Adults Help Providers Explain the Value of Vaccines

December 2013

Technically Speaking
Monthly Column by Deborah Wexler, MD
Deborah Wexler MD
Technically Speaking is a monthly column written by IAC’s Executive Director Deborah Wexler, MD. The column is featured in The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center’s (VEC’s) monthly e-newsletter for healthcare professionals. Technically Speaking columns cover practical topics in immunization delivery such as needle length, vaccine administration, cold chain, and immunization schedules.
Check out a recent issue of Vaccine Update for Healthcare Providers. The VEC e-newsletter keeps providers up to date on vaccine-related issues and includes reviews of recently published journal articles, media recaps, announcements about new resources, and a regularly updated calendar of events.
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
Handouts for Parents, Teens, and Adults Help Providers Explain the Value of Vaccines
Published December 2013
Information presented in this article may have changed since the original publication date. For the most current immunization recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, visit www.immunize.org/acip/acip_vax.asp.
Are you wondering where to find free immunization education materials to help explain the vaccination schedule, vaccine safety, and the importance of vaccines to patients or patients’ parents? Free-of-charge, attractive, informative patient handouts are available to help healthcare professionals during clinic visits and to give patients more detailed information to read and consider on their own. This column highlights some helpful sources for patient handouts available online from the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), the Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (VEC), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
From the Immunization Action Coalition
IAC’s Patient Schedules web section provides user-friendly immunization schedules for your patients of any age, including babies, children up to age 10 years, preteens and teens, and adults. Other handouts help people with certain medical conditions or risk factors, including pregnancy, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV infection determine which vaccines they might need. All of these schedules are available in both English and Spanish, and some are translated in up to eight different languages.
IAC’s Parent Handouts web section features a wide variety of pieces, including many handouts related to vaccine safety and efficacy that counteract the most common anti-vaccine arguments.
IAC’s Vaccine Summaries web section includes 20 one-page, easy-to-read handouts for parents, teens, and adults that promote vaccination against vaccine-preventable diseases. These handouts emphasize the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases and the importance of vaccination.
Twelve one-page handouts about childhood vaccinations in English and Spanish
Eight one-page handouts about teen and adult vaccinations in English and Spanish
Unprotected People Reports web section offers a collection of more than 100 compelling personal accounts and case reports from real people who have suffered from or lost loved ones due to vaccine-preventable diseases. Providers may find these stories to be their most helpful tool against the flood of anecdotal anti-vaccine information.
From the Vaccine Education Center
VEC has developed 15 Q&A patient handouts covering vaccine topics of interest, including titles such as:
Too Many Vaccines? What you should know
Vaccine Ingredients: What you should know
Vaccines and Autism: What you should know
You can download all of these handouts in English and Spanish from the VEC website
VEC also offers four colorful booklets covering immunization of infants, teens, and adults, as well as one about vaccine safety. These great booklets can be downloaded here.
From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CDC offers many free downloadable flyers and brochures for parents, including:
Provider Resources for Vaccine Conversations with Parents
In collaboration with the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC developed a number of educational materials outlining successful communication strategies for talking with parents about vaccines, as well as a parent handout explaining the risks and responsibilities associated with not vaccinating.
Understanding Vaccines and Vaccine Safety handouts
Diseases and the Vaccines that Prevent Them
For parents of children through age 6 years
For parents of preteens and teens

 

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