ADA News

Atlanta—Health professionals looking for help responding to limited health literacy experienced by up to 9 out of 10 American adults today can log on to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website for a free training program.

"Health Literacy for Public Health Professionals Online Training" provides information and skills essential for health professionals to be more effective communicators, educators and service providers. Participants can readily begin using what they learn in the training in their everyday work.

The program, available 24/7 at any computer with Internet access, takes 1.5-2 hours to complete and includes four modules offering knowledge checks, links to practical tools and resources and video clips. Specific learning objectives for the participants of this program include:

• obtaining background information on the concept of health literacy;
• recognizing the consequences of limited health literacy;
• determining who the stakeholders in health literacy are;
• recognizing the role of health literacy in meeting core public health service goals;
• Applying lessons learned to improve health literacy;
• identifying practical strategies for improving health literacy.

Log on to www.cdc.gov/Features/OnlineTraining to access the program.

Another new resource available to health care providers, developed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is a health literacy toolkit.

The Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit is designed to help adult and pediatric practices ensure that systems are in place to promote better understanding by all patients, not just those you think need extra assistance. The toolkit is divided into manageable chunks so that its implementation can fit into the busy day of a practice. It includes:

• quick start guide;
• path to improvement (six steps to take to implement the toolkit);
• 20 tools (two to five pages each);
• appendices with more than 25 resources such as sample forms, PowerPoint presentations and worksheets.

According to the AHRQ website, health literacy universal precautions refer to taking specific actions that minimize risk for everyone when it is unclear which patients have limited health literacy.

"Experts recommend assuming that everyone may have difficulty understanding and creating an environment where all patients can thrive," according to the AHRQ. "Research suggests that clear communication practices and removing literacy-related barriers will improve care for all patients, regardless of their level of health literacy."

The toolkit can be downloaded at www.ahrq.gov/qual/literacy.