In the health care sector, throughout the 1990s, with shorter hospitalization and more home-care, there has been increasing reliance on giving patients printed information and instructions to follow. This was part of the rationale for creating a Patient Health Literacy Centre. The site will serve as a testing ground for ideas and strategies that can be fine-tuned and incorporated into a Patient Information Centre to be part of the amalgamated McGill University Health Centre, projected to open in 2004. Phase 1, to be completed by the end of June 2001, will determine the scope of need in the MUHC population and develop a proposal for a focused pilot-project in the next year. This project will explore the mutual benefits of introducing health topics into ABE, ESL and ASE classes and build a focus of attention within both the health and adult learning communities on the value of cooperation.
Health literacy means more than being able to read pamphlets and successfully make appointments.
By improving people's access to health information and their capacity to use it effectively, health literacy is critical to empowerment. This definition significantly broadens the scope of the content of health education, indicates that health literacy may have both personal and social benefits, and has profound implications for education methods. In terms of content, efforts to improve people's knowledge, understanding, and capacity to act, should not only be directed at changing personal lifestyle or the way in which people use the health services. Health education could also raise awareness of the social, economic and environmental determinants of health, and be directed towards the promotion of individual and collective actions which may lead to modification of these determinants. In terms of health benefit, such a definition implies that health literacy is a personal resource which leads to personal benefits such as healthier lifestyle choices and effective use of available health services.