A resource for addressing belief and trust barriers to using digital health services

With more and more health services going online, we know that some people feel worried about using digital health services. By digital health services, we mean:

• The NHS App
• Online appointment booking platforms e.g. for GP appointments
• Video consultations
• Other apps or websites used to access medical information or monitor health conditions.

Following a review of recent literature, we worked with people with experience of digital exclusion to explore belief and trust barriers to using digital health services. Together, we co-designed a leaflet to prompt discussion around common worries about using digital health services, and to help people feel more confident to make choices about using digital health services.

The belief and trust concerns addressed in the leaflet include:

• How personal health information is used and who has access to it
• That digital health care will feel less personal
• That digital health services will be difficult to use
• Whether people have a choice around using digital health services.

For each of these concerns, the leaflet suggests questions that people can ask to feel more reassured, presents examples of other people who have faced these concerns, and signposts people to further information or support.

For more information about how we developed this leaflet, and our wider learnings from the co-design project on belief and trust barriers, please see our project report.

How to use this resource

The resource has been designed as an A5 size leaflet, that can be easily printed off and used to stimulate conversation with people who are worried about using digital health services. We recommend that it is used as part of dialogue between people facing barriers to using digital health services, and people providing them with support, such as community workers, health and care staff, or family and friends.

There is space at the back of the leaflet for people to capture their own notes and information, for example to record answers to the questions they ask about digital health services. 

Please download the resource document from the Downloads section.

Printing instructions

The resource has been designed to be easily printed double-sided on A4 paper, and then it can be folded into an A5 size leaflet. There is a colour version and a black and white version available. To print the leaflet successfully:

• Select the ‘double-sided’ or ‘duplex’ printing option for your printer
• Select option to ‘flip pages on short edge’ (not on long edge).
• Fold each page in half, using the page numbers to guide how the pages fit together in the leaflet.

If you’re not able to print double-sided, we recommend you use the ‘to view’ version of the resource, which will print each page of the leaflet onto a separate A4 page.