Health Literacy Month Ideas and Resources

Health Literacy Month Logo

Resources on Health Literacy

October is Health Literacy Month.  You can download this Logo free at http://www.healthliteracymonth.org/.  This site is provided by Helen Osborne, a health literacy consultant in the medical field, and thus promotes her books here.

Women's Health Booklet -- Easy to Read PDF published by the Florida Literacy Coalition in 2010. They also have one on stress.

Did you know you can load a pdf onto your kindle file.  If you have a personal kindle account, you can email a pdf through the kindle email account that comes with it.  This can put the many free easy to read items at your finger tips during a lesson. If you also have an I-phone, it will show up there in your kindle account.  Here is more on how to do it. It's pretty cool and an easy way to add reading opportunities for students.

 Want to know more about integrating health literacy into lessons, go to the Harvard School of Public Health. 

 

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy Survey included health literacy in their 2003 survey. More research is available, because this is one of the few areas in adult literacy which has been well researched --from the medical perspective. Here is more research cited and posted in 2010.

 

  Health Literacy Grants and Cheap Health Literacy Books

Florida Grants for Health Literacy -- Florida Literacy Coalition has partnered with Blue Cross and Blue Shield to award $5,000 grants each spring.  To see a list of the 2012 grants and learn more about the program go to this link.




The Institute for Healthcare Advancement sells low level health literacy books and hosts a health literacy conference in California each year.  One of their popular titles is on teeth. IHA also has a grant program for nonprofits where you can purchase the titles for $5.00 plus shipping and handling.  It looks like you can apply any time and hear within 30 days.

The American Medical Association has resources on health literacy for the medical profession.  They also have grants for community based organizations.. You do not even need to be a nonprofit, but they ask for extra if you are not. In their web page, they say check back in May 2013 for more information about the grant program.  This year the grants went to prescription related grants for ages up to 21 years.

 

Taking Control of a Doctor Visit

The National  Patient Safety Foundation has a very simple but powerful effort to improve communication between a doctor and a patient.  It is called "Ask 3 questions?"

Every person who goes to a doctor can use these simple questions.  English Language Learner tutors can build these questions into a dialog.  Adult basic education learners can learn how to read the questions as a way to do a student centered lesson, especially for parents or an adult who has a health problem.  Even tutors who use this strategy can have a better handle on a scary doctor visit.

1. What is my main problem?
2. What do I need to do?
3. Why is it important for me to do this?

Learn more about health literacy from a student perspective.






Share what you are doing or your questions about health literacy in comments below.