American Association for Health Education

1. American Association for Health Education • Session 711 - Promoting Health Literacy: Tools for Health Professionals • Saturday, April 2, 2011: 1:00 PM-2:15 PMConvention Center: Room 26A

2. Walk the Talk: Trends and Issues In Health Literacy • Session Objectives: • To provide background and tools to improve the health literacy skills of both the public and health professionals • To address the recommendations of the 2010 National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy.

3. Federal Definition of Health Literacy • Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Source: Healthy People 2010

4. The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy http://www.health.gov/communication/HLActionPlan A guide to engage organizations, professionals, policymakers, communities, individuals, and families in a linked, multi-sector effort to improve health literacy Contains seven goals that will improve health literacy and suggests strategies for achieving them

5. Overview • National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy • Develop a Plan for Action

6. Why Create an Action Plan?

7. Federal Foundations for a National Action Plan 2004 Institute of Medicine Report 2010 Plan Released 2003 NAAL Data Healthy People Objectives 2007-2008 Town Halls in 4 cities NIH/AHRQ Research Program Announcement 2006 Surgeon General’s Workshop 2009 Organizational Consultations 2003 Action Plan

8. May 27, 2010 Press Release “Health literacy is needed to make health reform a reality,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Without health information that makes sense to them, people can’t access cost effective, safe, and high quality health services. But, HHS can’t do it alone,” she added. “We need payers and providers of health care services to communicate clearly and make the necessary changes to improve their communication with consumers, patients, and beneficiaries…”

9. Seven Goal Areas • Health information creation and dissemination • Healthcare services • Early childhood-university education • Community-based services • Partnership and collaboration • Research and evaluation • Dissemination of evidence-based practice

10. Health Information Creation and Dissemination

11. Healthcare Services

12. Early Childhood-University Education

13. Community-based Services

14. Partnership and Collaboration

15. Research and Evaluation

16. Dissemination of Evidence-Based Practice

17. Putting the Pieces Together

18. Developing a Plan…

19. What steps should I take?

20. Getting Buy In… • American Medical Association videos • Trainings • Speaker from adult education class • Action with Results

21. Commit & Assess • Engage multiple stakeholders • Honest assessment • Forms and factsheets • Relationship with the media • Communication with clients, partners, community • Physical environment • Program development, implementation, and evaluation • Internal Communications and Policies • See what others are doing

22. State Health Literacy Efforts • Health Literacy Missouri • http://www.healthliteracymissouri.org/ • Partnership for Health Literacy in Arkansas • www.healthy.arkansas.gov • Minnesota Health Literacy Partnership • www.healthliteracymn.org • Health Literacy Iowa • http://www.ihs.org/body.cfm?id=308 • Wisconsin Literacy, Inc. • http://www.wisconsinliteracy.org/

23. Create the Plan • Be strategic and evidence-based • Focus on the goal, not the current operations • Cross disciplinary boundaries • Include evaluation • Include awareness • Include laws, policies and other institutional factors • Consider solutions to barriers • Be realistic, yet forward-thinking

24. Discussion on Barriers & Ways to Overcome Them

25. What goes into an Action Plan?

26. Goals • What do you want to accomplish? • What will success look like in… • 1 year • 3 years • 5 years

27. Brainstorming Goals National Action Plan Goal Areas Health information creation and dissemination Healthcare services Early childhood-university education Community-based services Partnership and collaboration Research and evaluation Dissemination of evidence-based practice

28. Objectives • How will you know if you reached your goal? • S pecific • Measurable • A ttainable • R ealistic • T ime-bound

29. Action Steps • What actions will be taken? • What? • By Who? • By When? • What is needed to be successful? • Resources • Partners

30. “Vet” the Plan • Show to relevant stakeholders • Have period of discussion and feedback • Refine Plan • Get senior leader(s) to endorse and support

31. Build Awareness • Engage Advocates • Start with “easy wins” • Highlight the benefits people will appreciate immediately • Incorporate into new employee orientation materials • Get outside of your comfort zone

32. Monitor Progress & Institutionalize Plan • Determine who is accountable • Build process for monitoring • Refine what success will look like over time • Implement plan

33. Commitment Is your organization using its resources to help improve health literacy OR perpetuate and create health literacy barriers?

34. TOOLS • Health Literacy Online: web design guide • Healthfinder.gov • Health Literacy Innovations (HLI) • Center for Plain Language • National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) • American Medical Association (AMA) • Health Literacy Digest: Literacy Information & Communication System(LINCS) • healthliteracy-request@lincs.ed.gov

35. Health Literacy Online: A Guide to Writing and Designing Easy-to-Use Health Web Sites • Outlines how to: • Deliver online health information that is actionable and engaging. • Create a health Web site that's easy to use, particularly for people with limited literacy skills and limited experience using the Web. • Evaluate and improve your health Web site with user-centered design. http://www.health.gov/healthliteracyonline

36. Health.gov Health Literacy Provides a number of Federal and other resources to help health and communication professionals improve health literacy Tools for improving health literacy Research and reports Other related resources http://www.health.gov/communication/literacy

37. Healthfinder.gov http://www.healthfinder.gov/prevention/ • Quick Guide to Healthy Living • Delivers actionable, engaging, and easy to understand health content • Content syndication • Plain language resource with information on more than 80 prevention and wellness topics. • Created and tested with input from hundreds of Web users with limited literacy skills • Earned the 2010 ClearMark Award for best plain language Public Sector Web site.

38. Other Government Resources • Plain Language/Health Literacy • http://www.plainlanguage.gov/populartopics/health_literacy/index.cfm • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Health Literacy and Cultural Competency • http://www.ahrq.gov/browse/hlitix.htm • Health Resources and Services Administration: Health Literacy • http://www.hrsa.gov/publichealth/healthliteracy/index.html • National Institutes of Health: Clear Communication: A NIH Health Literacy Initiative • http://www.nih.gov/clearcommunication/ • Health Literacy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention • http://www.cdc.gov/healthmarketing/healthliteracy/

39. Health Literacy Innovations Heath Literacy Advisor: Microsoft Word Add-In for creating easy to read documents

40. Questions? Linda Johnston Lloyd, Health Literacy/Education Consultant • linda.johnston@comcast.net