{"id":12669,"date":"2015-10-12T09:21:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T16:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nnlm.gov\/pnr\/dragonfly\/?p=12669"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:08:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:08:57","slug":"october-is-health-literacy-month","status":"archive","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/october-is-health-literacy-month\/","title":{"rendered":"October is Health Literacy Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s theme for Health Literacy Month 2015<\/a> is \u201cBe a Health Literacy Hero”.\u00a0 Whether you\u2019re an individual or an organization, promoting health literacy makes you a hero.<\/p>\n

Health literacy has been in the spotlight in recent years and is part of a growing movement to improve communication between patients and clinicians, reduce medical errors, lower medical expenses, and reduce health disparities.<\/p>\n

What is health literacy?\u00a0 According to Healthy People<\/a>, \u201cHealth literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

A person\u2019s health literacy may affect their ability to navigate the health care system such as filling out forms, understanding the mathematical concept of risk for a disease, compliance with medication or other medical services.<\/p>\n

Though a person\u2019s literacy may be a factor in their health literacy, no one is exempt from low health literacy.\u00a0 The health care world is a very foreign place even for those who are well educated.\u00a0 Everyone\u2019s health literacy level can drop just by hearing a diagnosis, having an emergency, or being in an unfamiliar health care setting.<\/p>\n

A number of resources are available for libraries and others who want to work towards increasing health literacy.<\/p>\n

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine<\/a> offers information on health literacy with several links to several informative and valuable resources.<\/p>\n

The Consumer and Patient Health Information Section (CAPHIS) \u00a0\u00a0of the Medical Library Association whose purpose is to provide librarians with the tools and resources needed to focus on the information needs of the lay person.<\/p>\n

Healthy People emphasizes that health information must be accurate, accessible and actionable.\u00a0 Their National Plan to Improve Health Literacy<\/em><\/a> is a guide to engage people at all levels to participate in the increased efforts of improving the health literacy in this country.<\/p>\n

Health.gov provides information on health literacy<\/a> and communication including a Health Literate Care Model.<\/p>\n

The CDC<\/a> has a host of information for action plans, information by state, including information on how to create materials that improve communication.<\/p>\n

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality<\/a>\u00a0(AHRQ) includes a toolkit as well as other information for clinicians to integrate in their work.<\/p>\n

Join a health literacy listserv\u00a0\u00a0sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Advancement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The responsibility of ensuring that health information is made accessible, is communicated clearly and understandably, and can be used to make appropriate decisions affecting a persons\u2019 health lies with many including clinicians, public health professionals, healthcare systems, educators and librarians.\u00a0 Working together and partnering with various organizations to improve the health literacy of those in our communities will make for more effective healthcare and healthier communities.\u00a0 So, use these tools and be a Health Information Hero!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s theme for Health Literacy Month 2015 is \u201cBe a Health Literacy Hero”.\u00a0 Whether you\u2019re an individual or an organization, promoting health literacy makes you a hero. Health literacy has been in the spotlight in recent years and is part of a growing movement to improve communication between patients and clinicians, reduce medical errors,… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12669","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","hentry","category-health-literacy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17540,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669\/revisions\/17540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}