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Health Literacy

The El Paso Collaborative: Health Literacy Curriculum : These lessons were developed to meet the educational and health needs of students in El Paso. Some of the Health Information is in Spanish. Lesson topics include: Diabetes, Breast Health, Menopause, Lead Poisoning, Household Hazards and Nutrition. You might find the "Ideas for Collaborating with Health Organizations" particularly helpful. (Recommended by Joy Bates, Literacy Instructor)

Health Education and Adult Literacy (HEAL) : Breast and Cervical Cancer - A complete curriculum for teaching about breast and cervical cancer to adults with limited literacy skills. You might find the word list useful for teaching medical vocabulary. This is a very comprehensive site providing many ways to learn about Health.

Focusing on Basics: Literacy and Health (This is a pdf document.  If you don't have adobe, you can download it by clicking here.): This 2002 issue includes articles which discuss the ways in which "literacy and health projects are enacted."

Picture Stories for Adult ESL Health Literacy : "Picture Stories for Adult ESL Health Literacy are designed to help ESOL instructors address topics that affect the health and well-being of their students. The stories are useful for beginner and low-literacy students."

Health Literacy Study Circles  (Scroll down to select a Health Literacy Study Circle) : Sample lessons and guides to create your own lesson and unit plans focused on helping your students develop healthy literacy skills. This Study Circle + program from NCSALL "enables adult educators to focus on building skills related to reading, writing, oral communication and math using health-related examples" in three areas: Health Care Access and Navigation, Chronic Disease Management, Disease Prevention and Screening, Making your Healthcare Facility Literacy Friendly, Public Health Forums and Health Literacy Study Circle + Facilitators Training (2007)

California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project Health Literacy Reference Guide: Tons of Resources for Health Literacy - Curriculum, Instructional Materials, Cross Cultural/Multilingual Instructional Materials.

Conversation with FOB: Learning How to Teach Health Literacy: The Health Literacy Study Circle+ Facilitator Guides is a series being published by NCSALL. Each of the three guides provides all the materials and methods needed to facilitate a 15-hour study circle that introduces teachers to a skills-based approach to health literacy. Focus on Basics spoke with NCSALL's Lisa Soricone, one of the Study Circle's authors; and New York City Literacy Assistance Center's (LAC) Winston Lawrence, a staff development facilitator who piloted the guides. We talked about what a Study Circle is, what a skills-based approach to health literacy is, and why both are valuable to adult basic educators.

About Health Education for Adult Literacy: The articles in this publication were written by ESL and Family Literacy Students who participated in the HEAL: BCC classes.

Pictograms of Health Topics: The US Pharmacopoeia Web site offers 81 downloadable pictograms for use in teaching health topics. You will need to subscribe (at no cost) to this site to view the pictograms.

Health Literacy Resource Center: "a one-stop shop for Web-based Health Literacy Resources."

Harvard School of Public Health: This website is sponsored by Harvard's Health Literacy Studies which offers the latest research and policy in Health Literacy. They also offer innovative materials and guidance for developing materials for the classroom.

National Network of Libraries of Medicine: This link offers resources for Health Literacy. It is divided into the following sections: Skills Needed for Health Literacy, Research Findings on the Impact of Literacy, Economic Impact of Low Health Literacy, Role of the Consumer Health Librarian, Health Literacy Organizations and Programs, Bibliographies and Webliographies and Health Literacy Listservs.

American Medical Association: Helping Doctors Help Patients: In 1998, the American Medical Association (AMA) became the first national medical organization to adopt policy recognizing that limited patient literacy affects medical diagnosis and treatment. The AMA Foundation has since been working to raise awareness of health literacy. This website offers: Health literacy toolkits, Health literacy patient safety tip cards and Health literacy partnerships. Explore this site to learn about the issue and what you can do to make a difference.

California Health Literacy Initiative The California Health Literacy Initiative informs and partners with individuals and organizations to craft collective, lasting solutions which will positively impact the health and well-being of individuals with low-literacy skills, their families, and their communities.

Virginia Adult Education Health Literacy Toolkit This Toolkit is a resource to help adult education instructors and administrators better understand the problem of health literacy as it affects their learners. It is designed to support creative approaches to help learners increase health literacy as they engage in sound, productive adult literacy instruction. Information and resources are provided to educate the educator about health care in the United States and cultural issues relating to health, and to simplify creation of health lessons and curricula for teachers and programs.

Health Communication Activities: This web site is provided by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  This site offers tools for improving health literacy, reports and research and links to government resources.

Health and Literacy Discussion List: This discussion list is sponsored by NIFL.

Health Literacy: Research and Practice: This links you to wikipedia's Literacy Tent. This entry provides stories from learners and patients, discussions, research, resources and announcements of upcoming events.

Evidence Report: Literacy and Health Outcome: This links you to a summary of a Literacy and Health Outcome Report prepared for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) by the RTI International-University of North Carolina Evidence-based Practice Center.

Health Resources and Services Administration: Health Literacy Page This page is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service.