ONE HEALTH ENGLEWOOD

Elements of the Plan

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The Action Plan should be based on 2 core principles:

• All people have the right to health information that helps them make informed decisions

• Health services should be delivered in ways that are easy to understand and that improve health, longevity, and quality of life

 

The Action Plan should contain these 7 goals that will improve health literacy and strategies for achieving them:

1. Develop and disseminate health and safety information that is accurate, accessible, and actionable

2. Promote changes in the health care system that improve health information, communication, informed decision-making, and access to health services

3. Incorporate accurate, standards-based, and developmentally appropriate health and science information and curricula in child care and education through the university level

4. Support and expand local efforts to provide adult education, English language instruction, and culturally and linguistically appropriate health information services in the community

5. Build partnerships, develop guidance, and change policies

6. Increase basic research and the development, implementation, and evaluation of practices and interventions to improve health literacy

7. Increase the dissemination and use of evidence-based health literacy practices and interventions

 

Why a Call to Action

 

Every day, people confront situations that involve life-changing decisions about their health. These decisions are made in such places as grocery and drug stores, workplaces, playgrounds, doctors’ offices, clinics and hospitals, and around the kitchen table. Only some of these decisions are made when patients and their health care providers are in a face-to-face consultation; many more are made when people are on their own and dealing with often unfamiliar and complex information. For example, they must figure out what type of health insurance they should choose; how much medicine to give a sick child, using the directions printed on a box; or how to respond to a warning about a severe public health outbreak in their area. People need information they can understand and use to make informed decisions and take actions that protect and promote their health. Yet two decades of research indicate that today’s health information is presented in a way that isn’t usable by the average adult. Nearly 9 out of 10 adults have difficulty using the everyday health information that is routinely available in our health care facilities, retail outlets, media, and communities.
 

At the same time that health-related decisions are becoming more complex, the economic pressure of rising health care costs and the growing prevalence of chronic disease are creating a shift toward consumer-driven health care, where consumers are the primary decision maker of the health care they receive. Public policy is increasingly focused on the role of consumers (the public) in managing their own health in partnership with health care providers. To make appropriate health decisions and act on them, people must locate health information, evaluate the information for credibility and quality, and analyze risks and benefits. Underlying this shift toward consumer-driven care are assumptions about people’s knowledge and skills that contradict what we know about health literacy in the United States.
 

An Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy in Greater Englewood should engage all people in a linked, multilevel effort to create a health literate community. The goals and strategies support and will help achieve Healthy People objectives in health literacy and related areas, such as chronic diseases. Healthy People is a set of health objectives for the Nation to achieve over a decade. The objectives are informed by the best scientific knowledge and designed to measure the Nation’s health over time. 

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The action plan identifies the overarching goals and highest priority strategies that we should pursue to create a health literate society. Organizations and professional groups can use the action plan as a framework, adapt the goals and strategies to their situation, and decide on specific actions to take. Professionals, public and private sector organizations, communities, and policymakers are the intended users of the plan because they are the ones who can organize and take actions and evaluate progress toward a health literate society. Every organization and professional group involved in the development and dissemination of health information and services should have specific goals, objectives, strategies, policies, guidelines, and metrics to ensure that their actions improve health literacy. Some groups may have a bigger role than others, but we all have a contribution to make.