Health Literacy Councils and Health Literacy in the Hispanic Community

Hi, all!


I am a newcomer to the group and am begging for help on two topics.


1.) I am trying to find "Health Literacy Councils" around the country, generally in medium-sized cities. Do any of you know of one or more of these? I live in Rockford IL which has one composed of people from area hospitals, personnel at a Medical School Library, Faculty of the medical school and members of the Rockford Literacy Council. Is this a completely rare event? Or do other such organizations exist?


2.) I am interested in pulling together a reading list for Hispanic children and their parents that may increase general health literacy. Does anyone know if a bibliography of such materials exists?


THANKS SO MUCH FOR ANY HELP!


Beth McGowan


Beth McGowan, PhD, MLIS
Librarian, Health and Human Sciences
Founders Library, Room 303
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL
bmcgowan@niu.edu
(815) 753-1947

Comments

Hi Beth:

In Wisconsin, we have four regional health literacy committees that include membership from health care, adult education, public health, etc. Our organization, Health Literacy Wisconsin, dedicates staff time to providing leadership and coordination on these committees. Each committee is self-directed and tackles priority projects from their regions. They encompass a large geographic area, but are most active in Eau Claire, Green Bay, Milwaukee and Madison.

Please let me know if you'd like more information.

- Erin

Hi, Erin,

Thanks so much for responding. I am asking because I am just beginning to put together a survey of regional health literacy organizations. (I hope eventaully to publish the results.) I want to know how they began, how long they've been around, who is involved, what kinds of work they do, and how they assess impact. Originally I thought that I would look only at organizations in cities about the size of Rockford, but Ithough I have a list of cities of comparable size, I am having trouble finding many such organizations. So I may be expanding the search to include the WISCONSIN regions. So, rather than just send me this information, would you agree to be part of the survey? Or perhaps I should email each region individually? But no hurry. I have to get this through an institutional review board first.

 

Beth

 

 

Hi, Erin,

Thanks so much for responding. I am asking because I am just beginning to put together a survey of regional health literacy organizations. (I hope eventaully to publish the results.) I want to know how they began, how long they've been around, who is involved, what kinds of work they do, and how they assess impact. Originally I thought that I would look only at organizations in cities about the size of Rockford, but Ithough I have a list of cities of comparable size, I am having trouble finding many such organizations. So I may be expanding the search to include the WISCONSIN regions. So, rather than just send me this information, would you agree to be part of the survey? Or perhaps I should email each region individually? But no hurry. I have to get this through an institutional review board first.

 

Beth

 

 

Feel free to contact me when your survey is ready. I can connect you to each regional committee, and/or speak to our statewide efforts.

You may also be interested in this group in Sheboygan County. They have decided to work on health literacy as part of their county health plan.

http://www.healthysheboygancounty.org/hsc2010/committees/health+literacy+committee+hlc/default.asp

Hi Beth, 

At the IHA Health Literacy Conference 2012, I obtained some books by Gloria Mayer, R.N. and Ann Kuklierus, R.N. that are easy to read and are written in English and Spanish with titles like "What To Do For Teen Health" and "What To Do When My Child is Heavy", etc. They are available on amazon. Good luck to you.

 

Peggy

 

Hi Beth,

The CDC's Health LIteracy Page has a map with listings of all the State-based Health Literacy Initiatives that they could complie around the country. It is very extensive and should help you to find councils in other cities.

http://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/

 

As for the Reading list for Hispanic Families, I would look at the Health Literacy Special Collection:

http://www.healthliteracy.worlded.org/

Especialy, look at the section called "Health Information for All, which has a listing of multilingual websites.

 

Also, look at Family Health & Literacy:

http://www.healthliteracy.worlded.org/docs/family/

This was created for Family Literacy Programs, and has kid- friendly and parnet-focused information, much of which is available in Spanish.

 

Laslty, look at KidsHealth.org .

 

Good luck!

Julie

 

Susan,

Thanks so much. Does proliteracy specialize in health literacy or does it address health literacy in general literacy work?

 

If you have done health literacy work, I would like to interview about that work in Dec or Jan. Will you be available?

 

Thanks,

beth

Hi Beth,

For about 1.5 years our organization (The Literacy Coalition of Central Texas) operated a health literacy council called the Health Literacy Action Group the Austin region. I'd be happy to speak about my experiences leading that group of stakeholders. You may also want to look into the San Antonio Health Literacy Initiative, a non-profit organization that basically acts as a health literacy collaborative/council. Elizabeth De La Fuentes is the Executive Director of that organization.

Best Regards,

Peter Morrison

Health Literacy Program Manager

Health Literacy Forward

Literacy Coalition of Central Texas

512-735-2531 :: pmorrison@willread.org