Health Literacy & Health Promotion

Have you ever gone to the doctor and left not understanding a word he said? He used a 10-syllable word to diagnose you and then gave you a prescription with a scribble on it and told you to take it twice daily and you left not knowing anything more than you did before you came in. It is so important to tailor your language to your clients as health professionals. Health literacy is the degree to which individuals are able to access, understand evaluate, and communicate information to engage with the demands of different health contexts in order to promote and maintain good health across the life-course. As a health provider, it is your job to make sure that your client or patient knows exactly what is wrong and exactly what medications they are taking and at what time. We sometimes think that every adult knows how to read, but as we saw in the video, that is not always the case. This could be detrimental to our client's health if we don't do our job to make sure they understand what we tell them. A good tool to use to improve your patient's health literacy are summed up in 7 steps:

1. Look for clues that your patient has a low health literacy. Some common signs are missed appointments, not taking their medication, or not completing required forms/paperwork. 

2. Use audio-visuals, pictures, or diagrams to explain things rather than medical terminology. 

3. Demonstrate. 

4. Highlight or circle important information they can take home with them. 

5. Speak slowly and use everyday language they would be able to understand. Think of it as trying to explain something to a child or like you're teaching it to someone with no background knowledge on the subject. 

6. Ask them to explain it back to you. Maybe say "So if your husband asks you what the doctor said at your appointment today, what exactly would you tell him?" This way you can be certain that they have a clear understanding. 

7. Encourage them to receive support from family, friends, online, or even a group.

These 7 steps are simple and concise and would be a great way to communicate with your clients to make sure that they understand exactly what they are supposed to be taking away from their appointment.

Another thing I learned was about empowering women with disabilities. Women with disabilities die from breast cancer at a higher rate than those without disabilities. There are many reasons for this. Multiple research studies prove that women with chronic disabling conditions are less likely to participate in breast cancer screenings due to a number of variables. Some of these barriers are lack of finances or insurance, lack of transportation, physical barriers or limitations such as being in a wheelchair, lack of knowledge, or even physiological issues such as depression or negative attitude. It is our job as women in the health care field to empower and inform all women about the dangers of neglecting health screenings, but especially those who suffer from disabilities because they tend to get overlooked. This is something that we can easily advocate and that we should make a priority because women with disabilities are no less important or no less deserving of health screenings than women without disabilities.