Health literacy and why it’s important to you

So, what is health literacy?

How good or bad health literacy is depends on how easy or hard it is for our clients to locate, access and understand health information. It is our aim to improve health literacy so that we can help you to understand and easily navigate the health system.

This will help you to find it easier to make good health decisions.

By improving health literacy, the healthcare we provide will be better, safer, and easier to access and understand.

Why is health literacy important?

Some people might be reluctant to access healthcare services or follow health instructions because they find the health system too complicated. According to the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey 2006, more than half of the people who access health services cannot understand the health information they receive.

Some groups of people might be affected by low health literacy more so than other groups. That’s why we must assume that everyone has difficulties handling health information and services, so that all of our clients and not only those with higher health literacy, can understand and access what they need to make important health decisions.

The problem

Our Child and Family team specialises in the development and wellbeing of children from birth to the age of 12. The team works closely with our clients’ children, families and communities, and provides a full range of services including individual therapy and early childhood early intervention.

The Child and Family team recognised that they were sending a lot of information to their clients but some clients were having trouble finding the information they needed.

The team wanted to provide clients with information that was easier to understand and follow.

How our Health Promotion team helped

The Health Promotion team looked through the Child and Family team’s documents and improved their health literacy by simplifying wording, removing jargon and breaking down long sentences.

The Health Promotion team also suggested reducing the number of attachments and changing the way information was ordered in emails with the most important information at the top.

How these changes are helping Child and Family clients

• The information Child and Family clients are receiving is easier to follow and understand.
• More clients are attending their appointments.
• More clients are completing the correct paperwork.

The team said:

“For me, it was learning about the best way to lay out information in a letter so that clients are able to see the most important information first, and understand what they need to do next.”

“I have been applying this philosophy to all kinds of emails and letters that I send now, not just to new clients, but also to colleagues and other people I am communicating with.”

“It highlighted how much jargon or sector specific language we use without realising it, and [what words we can use to try] and explain something.”

What’s next for Child and Family?

The Child and Family team is keen to make further changes to keep on improving its health literacy for even more clients.

What’s next for Access Health and Community?

Improving health literacy is a simple change and it can have a positive impact on our clients and workforce.

More Access Health and Community services and teams are taking steps to improve health literacy. This will help to improve client participation in their healthcare by helping them to understand the information they read and receive.