[Networking of documentation practices in health education committees]

A national network of health education information officers was established at the end of 2001. The aim and objective of this group is "to contribute to the development of a solid, coherent documentation service delivery for the health education field in France." The professionals decided to commence by undertaking an assessment of the documentation activities in both the regional and departmental health education committees in order to establish sub-working groups which would collaborate to better achieve this goal. The survey's results have shown that there are existing skills and competencies available within the different committees in spite of current gaps between the various regions and department in terms of their levels of qualifications, resources and information activities and practices. It is for this reason that the national network of health education information officers designed and implemented the smaller working groups in order to gradually enable them to solidify and strengthen the network to ensure that they have the capacity to meet the stated objectives. This approach could constitute the basis for a national health education documentation network as described and called for by the law delineating the missions of the French Institute for Prevention and Health Education (Inpes).