The term ‘health literacy’ can be explained in different ways. The national health literacy action plan, Making it Easy (2017-2025), defines health literacy as:
“Health literacy is about people having enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate health and social care systems”
Health literacy relates to a range of communications including, written, spoken and visual. All health and social care staff in Scotland have a responsibility to support health literacy.
Why Health Literacy?
Health literacy can lead to:
“This is bad enough” – by Elspeth Murray
Elspeth Murray’s poem “This is Bad Enough” highlights the importance of taking health literacy into account when communicating health information or interacting with people in a healthcare setting.
Local Projects
NHS Shetland, Shetland Community Connections, and the Shetland Community Learning and Development team worked with the Scottish Government to develop three projects in different services. A small working group was formed to gather their knowledge, skills, and resources to focus on health literacy, to draw out local needs, and to explore how services are designed and delivered, using a quality improvement approach.
The three projects focused on:
- access to primary care services for people who use British Sign Language;
- developing communication tools and resources for healthcare staff working with people who have learning disabilities;
- providing training and resources for staff working within communities to increase capacity to deliver approaches informed by health literacy tools and techniques.
If you would like to hear more about these projects, get in touch with the Health Improvement Team using our contact form.
For more information about health literacy:
