Background
The Australian Safety and Quality Framework for Health Care identifies a vision for safe and high quality care in Australia that is consumer centred, driven by information and organised for safety. One of the key actions within the Framework is to increase health literacy so that people can be active partners in their health care. Health literacy was identified by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission in its 2008 report as a critical component in strengthening consumer engagement and building and agile and self-improving health system. Poor health literacy was also raised by many stakeholders during the Commission’s recent consultation processes on patient-centred care and patient safety in primary health care. It was seen as a key risk to patient safety, healthcare quality and as a barrier to implementing patient-centred care.What is health literacy?
Health literacy is the ‘degree to which individuals can obtain, process and understand the basic health information and services they need to make appropriate health decisions’. The traditional view of health literacy has been focused on changing the skill level of the patient or consumer. However, recent research suggests that to effectively make improvements in health literacy we need to look at strategies that focus on activities that minimise the complexity of healthcare as well as those that focus on improving individual skills.People with inadequate health literacy have poorer levels of knowledge and understanding about their condition, are less likely to attend appointments, are less adherent to medication regimens and health behaviour advice, make more medication errors and perform worse at self care activities. Concerningly, studies have shown that approximately 60 per cent of Australians have poor health literacy and are not able to effectively exercise their ‘choice’ or ‘voice’ when it comes to making health care decisions.
Health literacy stocktake, process and feedback
As part of its work on patient-centered care the Commission is conducting a comprehensive stocktake of health literacy initiatives. The Commission is seeking information on health literacy projects, programs, research and initiatives at local, state or national level. The Commission will be accepting submissions up to Friday 30 March 2012.Links
Online survey:https://www.research.net/s/ACSQHCHealthLiteracyStocktake
Health Literacy Stocktake Reporting Template (Word 31 KB)
Contact
Naomi Poole, Senior Project Officer(02) 9126 3600
Email: ACSQHhealthliteracystock@health.gov.au
