Dianne Rees's List: health care

• • Resources to increase health literacy.
• One of the original patient safety coalitions,  NCPIE works to advance the
  safe, appropriate  use of medicines through enhanced communication

• • Useful lesson plans for improving health literacy; targets seniors but not really limited to seniors

• Useful lesson plans for improving health literacy; targets seniors but not really limited to seniors - Dianne Rees on 2010-06-30

• • List of links to resources for improving patient literacy

• • A mashup of different patient resources on diverse topics

• • Important point: there's a behavioral component to health literacy
• Health literacy has many definitions. Healthy People 2010 has defined health literacy as "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions" (Ratzan & Parker, 2000).
• The Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) tool

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• According to the IOM report and  those interviewed for this article, low health literacy of patients can  stem from any of several factors, including:
• Explain, Ask, and Listen
• "health care  providers need to think of multiple methods to transmit information,"  keeping in mind certain objectives:
• • Informing the patient about his or her condition, and how to deal  with it
    
  • Addressing the patient's understanding
    
  • Ensuring a patient has future access to the information, such as  materials they can refer to
• • Docs need to be mindful of cognitive load
• May adds that patients can only handle a certain amount of  information. "They can't remember 20 exercises at one time"
• The question arises: How can a PT tailor his or her approach to each  individual patient? Active listening is one tool. Describing how he  assesses a patient's communication needs, Ogbonna says that when he  begins speaking with a patient and asking questions, "the way they  answer is indicative" of how to continue the conversation.
• For PTs who wish to produce new materials, here are some basic  guidelines:
• The third element of effective patient education (after "Explain,  Ask, and Listen" and "Write It Down") is demonstration and repetition.  Although written materials reinforce verbal explanations, patients often  "learn better by manipulation," says May. This point was reiterated by  most interviewed for this article. Show the patients how to do their  exercises, but make sure to ask them to do it a few times by  themselves.

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• Most important is to create a "shame-free environment" where patients with low literacy skills feel they can ask for help.

• the Consumer Health Library which houses an extensive collection of resources and exhibitions on a range of health issues including social anxiety and agoraphobia, and Alzheimer's disease
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