Teaching youngsters to care about health care

For a variety of reasons, medical patients throughout history have generally proven unable to communicate effectively with their health care providers. HealthPACT, developed by the Schools of Nursing and Medicine at the University of Colorado, attempts to reverse this disturbing trend. Using age-appropriate materials, it teaches school-age youngsters how to become knowledgeable health consumers. It is hoped that this programme will eventually create a generation of adults which is better able to articulate individual health concerns and then follow the advice of various health care providers.