a vision for a more health literate missouri: building a statewide health literacy center center for...
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A Vision for a More Health Literate Missouri: Building a
Statewide Health Literacy Center
Center for Plain Language SymposiumNovember 7, 2008National Press Club
Washington D.C.Arthur Culbert, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor to Missouri Foundation for Health
Definition
Health 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.”
(Healthy People 2010)
Low health literacy contributes to:
– Misunderstanding– Mistakes– Excess hospitalizations– Poor health outcomes– Unnecessary deaths
Size of the problem
Low health literacy:U.S. 90 million
MO. – 1.6 million
Size of the problem
Estimated annual costs of low health literacy to the economy
U.S. $106 to $238 billion
Missouri $3.3 to $7.8 billion
Vernon J. et al, 2007
Cost of Low Health Literacy in Missouri
Today’s talk
• State wide efforts in health literacy
• Health Literacy Missouri (HLM)
• Role of plain Language
State’s Efforts
• Midwest– Minnesota Health Literacy Partnership ‘06– Iowa Center for Health Literacy ‘08– Wisconsin Literacy Inc. ‘08– Health Literacy Missouri ‘09
History
• MFH discovered health literacy components in previous proposals (2002-2005)
• Awarded $2.1 million in 2007 as part of 5 years funding
• Open a statewide health literacy center in 2009
Guiding Principles
• Engage Community Partners– Inclusive– Responsive– Relationship Building
• Put Consumer First– User Driven – Easy to Use– Sustainable
• Innovate Strategically – Find niche
Vision and Mission
• The vision of Health Literacy Missouri is to become a national leader in health literacy with a mission to improve the health of all Missourians.
Partners
Systems Thinking
Coordinating Council
Engage in open dialogue
Build collaboration to create “group genius”
Determine consensus of priorities
Develop strategic plan for the Health Literacy Missouri Center to open in 2009
Activities
• Health literacy and plain language– Retained Maine Health Literacy Institute
to provide training in clear health communication to all involved in HLM
Activities
• Identified priority health literacy needs and concerns of Missourians
• Completed a national survey of health care journalists
• Conducted extensive open-ended interviews with 100 health literacy leaders
Activities
• Raised visibility of HLM– Cosponsored with CDC town hall meeting May 2008
– Incited activity in health literacy with in Missouri• Determined economic cost to Missouri• Field testing living with diabetes guide developed by
the American College of Physicians• Supporting the development of GSI mapping
software to determine ‘hot spots’ of low literacy
Hot spots of low literacy
St. Louis Health Literacy Level by Tract
Activities
• Identified 10,000+ health literacy resources– Classifying by type and developing criteria for evaluating
– Inventory of health literacy resources will:• Be easily accessible • Be well organized• Be user friendly• Meet user's needs• Target community- based organizations, health care
providers, adults with low health literacy
Health Literacy Depot• Step 1: visit
http://www.healthliteracymisouri.org/ (open to the public in December 2009)
• Step 2: click on Health Literacy Depot
Health Literacy Depot• Step 3: Choose from a drop down the area of
health literacy you are interested in addressing– Developing plain language documents– Creating shame free patient provider environment– Developing appropriate signage within an
organization– Creating an evaluation instrument to measure the
success of an organization’s efforts to remedy low health literacy in the work place
Health Literacy Curriculum
• Target Population: ALL health professions students, and providers
• Activities:– Curricula to raise awareness and provide best
practices for health professional students and providers
– Health literacy training through Missouri AHEC pre- health professional students
Demonstration Projects
Engage the community in creative ways to advance health literacy
Demonstration Projects
Social Marketing
• Health literacy awareness campaign across Missouri– Strategic press releases developed and
delivered monthly to:• 265 newspapers• 35 Television stations
Strategic Communications
Work
Each press release begins as a template, to be localized for each region
Strategic Communications WorkLocal graphics are created for each region. Research has shown that including graphics with the release increase the chance of having it used.
Strategic Communications
Work
With the graphics in place, the local quotes, statistics and other information is inserted and then the release is sent out to the targeted media
Health Literacy Surveillance
• Target Population: general public and health care providers
• Activities– Plan and administer assessments of health literacy to
the general public and health care professionals– Analyze data and report findings – Findings will serve as baseline measures to evaluate
year-to-year progress in health literacy
Conclusion
• Yes We Can!!• Lots going on• Building on Foundation of plain language• Strategy for reforming health care