| Slide Number |
Title and Content |
| 61 |
Facilitate Healthy Decisionmaking
- Use short documents that present “bottom-line”
information, step-by-step instructions, and visual
cues that highlight the most important information:
- People process and use a limited amount
of information when making a decision.
- Align health information and recommendations
with access to services, resources, and support!
|
| 62 |
Partner With Educators
Co-develop adult basic education lessons on health
topics:
- Adult learners want information that is relevant
to their lives; health content is likely to engage
them.
- Construct lessons in which students use health-related
texts, forms, and content from the Internet.
|
| 63 |
Partner With Educators
- The K–12 education system is a critical
point of intervention to improve health literacy.
- Incorporate health-related tasks, materials,
and examples into lesson plans.
- Design and disseminate health information to
support existing state standards.
- Speak to students or help organize health-related
field trips for local schools.
|
| 64 |
4. Advocate for Health Literacy
Improvement
- Make the case for improving health literacy.
- Incorporate health literacy in mission and
planning.
- Establish accountability for health literacy
activities.
|
| 65 |
Make the Case for Improving Health Literacy
- Identify specific programs and projects affected by limited
health literacy.
- Target key opinion leaders with health literacy information:
- Explain how health literacy improvement relates to
your mission, goals, and strategic plan.
- Circulate relevant research and reports on health
literacy to colleagues.
- Post and share health literacy resources.
|
| 66 |
Incorporate Health Literacy in Mission and
Planning
- Include goals and objectives specifically related to health
literacy improvement in:
- Strategic plans
- Program plans
- Educational initiatives
- Goals can be broad (e.g., Achieving Healthy People
2010 Objective 11-2) or specific to the mission of
the office/program.
|
| 67 |
Include Health Literacy in Grants, Contracts,
and MOUs
Recommend that all products, materials, and forms be written
in plain language and tested with the intended audiences.
|
| 68 |
Establish Accountability
- Include health literacy improvement criteria in program
evaluation.
- Implement health literacy metrics.
|
| 69 |
Establish Accountability
Sample metrics
Our office will:
- Apply user-centered design principles to 75% of new Web
pages created after January 2006.
- Ensure that all documents intended for the public are
reviewed by a plain language expert.
- Provide all new employees with training in cultural competency
and health literacy within 6 months of their date of hire.
|
|
Back to Top
|
| 70 |
HEALTH LITERACY
Integrating Health Literacy Into Your Work at
HHS
|
| 71 |
Integrating Health Literacy Into Your Work
at HHS
- Communicate with the public.
- Work with grantees and contractors.
- Conduct and promote research.
- Manage staff and programs.
- Work with external stakeholders and partners.
|
| 72 |
Communicating With the Public
HHS communication functions include:
- Responding to public inquiries
- Developing public health messages/campaigns
- Developing materials, publications, Web sites
- Improving public access to evidence-based health information
- Promoting and disseminating messages, materials, recommendations,
and guidelines
- Working with the media/press
- Acting as public liaisons
- Developing and implementing communication plans
- Providing health research results
- Speechwriting
- Contributing to professional and academic publications
|
| 73 |
Communicating With the Public
Example: Working with the media
- Write press releases aimed at the general public; use
plain language.
- Provide journalists with access to health literacy resources:
- Create and post a health literacy "backgrounder"
for journalists online (focus on data and news "hooks").
- Highlight health literacy angle embedded in routine stories.
|
| 74 |
Working With Grantees and Contractors
- Require health literacy expertise as part of the skill
set for the teams awarded contracts.
- Encourage grantees to address health literacy issues in
their work plans and deliverables.
- Include health literacy improvement as a topic in all
technical assistance and materials development grants.
|
| 75 |
Working With Grantees and Contractors
Example:
Ask Funding Opportunity Announcement applicants to explain
how their projects will contribute to meeting the health literacy
objectives in Healthy People 2010.
|
| 76 |
Promoting Research
Integrating health literacy into research agendas:
- Review research portfolios.
- Convene research agenda-setting meetings for your topics:
- Include colleagues from across HHS who share responsibility
for these topics.
- Identify health literacy research questions.
- Communicate research findings to health professionals
and the public (shared function with Communication staff).
|
| 77 |
Promoting Research
Example:
- Make presentations at scholarly meetings.
Organize symposia and sessions on health
literacy at annual professional association meetings.
- Publish in professional journals.
|
| 78 |
Managing Staff and Programs
- Incorporate health literacy improvement into performance
plans, GPRA, and PART.
- Include health literacy activities in budget requests.
- Communicate the importance of health literacy improvement
to staff.
|
| 79 |
Managing Staff and Programs
Example:
Conduct a senior-level briefing at your office or agency:
- Include formal presentation and handouts.
- Tie health literacy improvement to your specific mission,
goals, and objectives.
- Make specific recommendations.
|
| 80 |
Working With External Stakeholders and Partners
External stakeholders and partners include:
- Healthcare professional organizations
- Patient advocacy and support organizations
- Consumer advocacy organizations
- State, local, and tribal governments
- Federal departments and agencies
- Academic institutions
- Industry trade organizations
- Media vendors and associations
|
| 81 |
Working With External Partners
Arrangements may be:
- Formal (e.g., Collaborative Research and Development
Agreements and signed letters of agreement)
- Informal collaboration
In both cases, agencies can encourage partners to:
- Conduct user-centered research.
- Evaluate the impact of enhanced understandability.
|
| 82 |
Working With External Stakeholders
- Include representatives from your target population in
planning, implementation, and evaluation.
- Be sure to include organizations that represent/serve
populations with limited literacy skills.
|
| 83 |
Working With External Stakeholders and Partners
Examples:
When you are soliciting proposals for presentations at HHS-sponsored
events, state your interest in receiving presentations that
address health literacy issues.
|
| 84 |
Who Is Responsible for Improving Health Literacy?
A health literate America is a society in which health systems
and institutions take responsibility for providing clear communication
and adequate support to facilitate health-promoting actions
based on understanding.
—Institute of Medicine,
2004
|
| 85 |
Who Is Responsible for Improving Health Literacy?
- Our job as HHS employees is to protect the health of all
Americans.
- Healthcare providers, public health professionals, health
policy makers, and health administrators are all responsible
for improving health literacy.
|
| 86 |
Who Is Responsible for Improving Health Literacy?
We are!
|
| 87 |
HEALTH LITERACY
Resources
|
| 88 |
Resources
|
| 89 |
Resources
|
| 90 |
Resources
|
| 91 |
Resources
|
