Feel free to share this information with your colleagues, but please credit me as the author. The goal of the Best Practices project was to assemble information about health care programs that take literacy into account. While there is a great deal written about programs in the US and Canada, it is not presented in a standardized format. This summary, therefore, looks at patterns, not details. Settings for health and literacy programs include health promotion and prevention programs in the community, and disease management and patient education programs in the community, the clinic and the hospital.
Findings show that, for the most part, programs achieved their initial goals.
There were, however, some lessons to be learned. Funding of these programs is the most problematic. Indeed, some effective programs no longer exist because they ran out of money. In reflection, there are a wealth of outstanding health and literacy programs. These programs are developed by creative, energetic and committed individuals.