Health literacy follows two distinct definitions using a person or an organization as the stem;
Personal health literacy refers to how individuals use health-related information to his advantage. Center for health literacy solutions helps individuals gather quality information that will benefit them and their families stay safe from diseases. In contrast, organizational health literacy refers to how an organization uses its power to enable individuals to find and use the information for making health-related decisions.
As we all know, it is safer than curing, therefore don’t overlook small bits of information that will at one time affect your wellbeing. Many people are willing to learn, but with over 1.7 billion websites, it is impossible to sift through massive information to get what is right. However, the overwhelming source of information might not be the problem; the main issue here is how to differentiate truth from trash! How do you find beneficial information?
Center for healthy literacy solutions should be your first stop if you are searching for health-related information. What are the solutions available at centers for health literacy? First, let us look at some of the major factors affecting someone’s ability to acquire and use health-related information wisely;
According to nap.edu, socioeconomic status and age affect someone’s ability to use health-related information to make wise decisions.
- Age, socioeconomic factor and healthy literacy
Children are in the course of gathering information; hence they are acquainted with few medical terms like general cleanliness, which greatly reduces their ability to use health information to make decisions. Furthermore, children and young adults rely on someone else, especially their parents, to guide them; therefore, age greatly determines someone’s ability to use the information to make sound health decisions.
If we shift our focus on socioeconomic status, a clear picture of illiteracy is drawn. Folks from developed countries like the USA have access to regulated information that impacts their health positively. On the flip side, people living in underdeveloped nations, rely on organizations to deliver information that may influence their health-related decisions. Additionally, when socioeconomic status factors are in-game, people won’t care about what and which information they get; here, they are struggling to keep their beliefs straight and survive with limited resources.
What are the solutions available at centers for health literacy?
Teach-back training kit
Teach-back training kit helps health caregivers to support families with quality information during transitions between health care settings. Teach- back combines different literacy principles and languages to make sure a patient understands and can translate or teach back the information provided. It is a simple tool that improves understandability as well as the ability to relay information.
Points to note during wen using teach-back training kit
- Teach back is not a question and answer session, but it is a way of explaining a concept to patients and letting them explain back the way they have understood
- Asking patients to explain what they need to know in their own language
- Teach-back checks a patient’s understandability and re-explaining if needed
Conferences
Conferences are a very good source of information on wellbeing. Centers for healthy literacy solutions often use conferences to spread information about a particular issue affecting people’s health in general.
During a conference meeting, experts from different medical fields converge and discuss a common issue to find the solution. That exchange of information is particularly important to individuals wishing to learn something new about their health.
Healthy literacy solution centers use conferences to disseminate valuable information. This is the reason why most of them are community-based and dynamic- they keep changing depending on the prevailing health risks. Currently, there are many conferences in progress online, especially on Covid-19. Visit websites like WHO to find out which conferences you can follow up and gain more information that will help you make a wise decision.
Easy to read books
Apparently, many people venture into inexpensive reading as a hobby. The recent statistics released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that on average, a person spends 19 minutes reading, that is why health literacy centers provide easy to read books on health issues. If centers for healthy literacy solutions capitalize on easy to read books, most people will get enough knowledge to make positive health-related decisions.
The quest for knowledge is saving mankind from many health issues. But were it not for the efforts of centers for a healthy literacy solution, using different resources including the internet to educate people, our health standards could be trailing back!
