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