Health Literacy Resource Guide

What is Health Literacy?

• Health Literacy allows the public and personnel working in all health-related contexts to find, understand, evaluate, communicate, and use information.
• Health Literacy is the use of a wide range of skills that improve the ability of people to act on information in order to live healthier lives.
• These skills include reading, writing, listening, speaking, numeracy, and critical analysis, as well as communication and interaction skills. 

(The Calgary Charter on Health Literacy)

While health literacy includes individual skills and knowledge, it is also affected by the demands and expectations of the healthcare system.

To achieve health literacy we need to create a better balance between these demands and the skills/resources of patients and families.

• Simplifying communication with all patients and confirming that they understand so that the risk of miscommunication is minimized
• Making the office environment and health care system easier to navigate
• Supporting patients efforts to improve their health

(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)