Adviser LeadingAge New York Summer 2015 July 2015 | Page 26

Feature
Health What???
Karen Burhans Laing, CEO/founder, Health Literacy for All Inc.

H

ealth Literacy is a set of skills and knowledge that people need to
navigate the health care system, make healthy choices and respond
appropriately in a public health crisis. If you have ever tried to decide between
two different medical treatments, forgotten to take your medications, wished
you understood what your doctor was saying, or tried to live a healthier life
but were confused by the research out there, your health literacy skills need
improvement. You are not alone. The federal government estimates only 12
percent of English-speaking Americans are fully health literate (www.health.
gov/communication/literacy/quickguide/factsbasic.htm.) Factor in the 20
percent of Americans who do not speak English at home – and the fact that
skills related to public health emergencies were not included in this estimate
– and we are really talking about only 3-4 percent of Americans being fully
health literate. This is a real crisis in our health care system!
If the federal government knows how bad it is, what’s being done to improve
American’s health literacy skills? The answer, sadly, is that very little is really
being done. Our medical system has known since the 1980s, when people
suffering from AIDS and breast cancer began demanding more information
about treatments and their care, that people aren’t as health literate as they
should be. The medical system has slowly responded to the lack of health
literacy skills by providing information in easier to read formats, speaking
slowly, encouraging patients to ask questions and using translators to ensure
the patient understands what is going on. None of these things, however,
teach the patients the health literacy skills they need to be successful. It’s like
saying, “Johnny can’t read, so rather than teach him to read, we will dumb
down the curriculum.”
As a public health educator with a history of special education and designing
training programs, it didn’t take me long to identify the need to teach people
these skills. So, after months of research on what the skills are that the
medical field feels is lacking, I designed a comprehensive program called
“Health Literacy and You” to teach patients how to be fully health literate,
as well as to teach providers how to be better communicators. As word has
spread through the Capital District, I am seeing increasing numbers of people
who are anxious to learn these skills and, as a result, live a
healthier life.

The best care possible should be every

So who is at risk of low health literacy? Obvious choices
are the functionally illiterate, the non-English speaking
immigrant and those living in generational poverty. An
additional surprising answer is the elderly: “Poor health
literacy is not necessarily limited to lower income patients; one study of

senior’s goal for their health needs.

(See Health What on page 26)

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Adviser a publication of LeadingAge New York | Summer 2015