Regional health literacy

What is health literacy?

Health literacy is about people being able to understand health information. It’s about us making it easier for them to do this. It’s talking to patients using everyday words. It’s writing to them in a way that’s clear. This helps our patients make informed choices about their health.

Why is it important?

It is important that health information is written in a way that can be understood so that people can make informed choices about their health. The average reading age of adults in the UK is 9-11 years old. Half of adults find it hard to understand health information. So they struggle to use it to help their health and wellbeing. This creates health inequalities.

People with low health literacy:

  • Are more likely to die younger
  • Are more likely to have long-term conditions
  • Miss appointments more often
  • Find it hard to take medication correctly
  • Feel worried and angry
  • Struggle to look after their own health effectively

What can we do about it?

We can all share clearer health information. We can all speak and write in ways that make it easier for our patients to understand.

We can write in a clear way, at the average UK reading age. We can use as little medical jargon as possible. We can talk about health using everyday words.

We can check with patients if we’ve explained clearly before they go home. The regional health literacy team is here to help with this.

Our work

Our goal is to make sure that the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (NENC ICS) communicates information to all people in a way that is easy for them to understand.

Our work plan for the regional health literacy team:

1 Make sure the health literacy approach involves local people and communities and health champions 
2 Create a North East and North Cumbria (NENC) health literacy team and approach that supports making the health literacy plan happen
3 Make a NENC health literacy work plan
4 Make a NENC Health Literacy Community of practice so people who are interested in health literacy can get together either in person or using technology to share ideas and support each other
5 Find out what is already happening  about health literacy across the NENC Integrated Care System (ICS)
6 Make sure the NENC ICB estates strategy has an approach that considers health literacy
7 Make a number of patient pathways health literate and use these as examples
8 Develop and make sure organisations sign up to making what they do health literate 
9 Develop and  NENC Health Literacy toolkit to help organisations be health literate
10 Explore the development of a NENC health literacy standard so people know that they will receive health information that they understand
11 Develop training for Health Literacy so people and the places they work for can be trained in how to be health literate
12 Develop a plan to measure how well the plan has made the ICS work more with health literacy in mind

Click here to see the PowerPoint video of our work plan.

  • We have chosen a number of patient pathways (journeys) that will be reviewed from a health literacy point of view. We will make improvements so that the pathway is health literate and check if the changes have made a positive difference. Changes will include looking at written materials and re-writing them so they are understandable and training for staff involved in the pathway. We have started work on the following pathways:
    • Alcohol – Fibroscan pathway in County Durham Drug and Alcohol Services. A fibroscan is a type of scan that can measure the stiffness of your liver
    • South Tees Maternity pathway
    • Medicines optimisation – Valproate pathway
    • Local Authority pathway – currently being identified
    • South Tees Healthy Weight and Obesity and South Tees Physio leaflet
  • We are working on a health literacy toolkit for the North East and North Cumbria ICS. There are already some helpful resources on this webpage
  • We are working on a health literacy pledge that organisations can sign up to. We will develop standards (things organisations can put in place) which shows that they are a health literate organisation
  • We are developing a programme of health literacy training. Click on the training section for more information
  • We have completed work on the North of Tyne Bowel Screening where we focused on local documents and Fibroscan pilot.

Meet the team

Find us: We are based at South Tyneside District Hospital but cover the whole of the North East and North Cumbria Region.

Contact us: stsft.nenchealthliteracy@nhs.net

Ryan Swiers

Consultant in public health/health literacy lead
ryan.swiers@nhs.net

Emma Davidson

Strategic manager
emma.davidson22@nhs.net

Alice Gray

Health equity co-ordinator
alice.gray9@nhs.net

Leanne Kirkup

Health literacy trainer
leanne.kirkup@nhs.net

Tracey Garbarino

Health literacy trainer
tracey.garbarino@nhs.net

Lorna Dawson

Health literacy specialist/health literacy officer
lorna.dawson3@nhs.net

Kia Thomas

Health information assistant editor
kia.thomas@nhs.net

Alex Leigh

Health information assistant editor
alex.leigh@nhs.net

Health literacy training

We are creating different levels of training that will help you to understand health literacy and how to use it in your work.

Virtual webinars

Ever wondered what health literacy is all about? Want to know why it matters and how it can help?

This session will give you a short introduction to health literacy. You will find out what health literacy is and what you can do to make it better. You’ll learn how it affects patients, carers, families and the wider community and how better health literacy can make it easier for everyone to engage in their health and wellbeing.

How to write simply

Got some health information to write and don’t know where to start? Want to know how to make your writing clearer?

This session will show you how to write clearly and simply. We’ll give you tips and tools to help make your writing as readable as possible.

When health information is clear and simple, people understand their health better. They can make more informed choices, and be more active in their health and wellbeing.

Face to face sessions

Face-to-face health literacy training is now available. Our face-to-face training includes a Speaking Simply session.

The Speaking Simply session will make you aware of the importance of good communication. You will learn about the impact that low health literacy has on people and organisations and when verbal interactions can be improved.

During this interactive session you will learn some tips and techniques for making your conversations engaging and impactful.

Available training

Please check the Boost Learning Academy website for available training.

Boost Learning Academy

Coming soon...

A Train the Trainer programme will soon be available. Details will be shared on this page.

Other courses that you may find helpful: 

Health literacy – e-learning for healthcare

Future Learn Course

Health literacy toolkit

Here you can find some writing advice. The links below give useful advice on writing in a simple way.

 

 

 

Type or copy and paste your writing into this webpage. It will suggest how to make it clearer. For example, it will highlight sentences that are too long, written in the passive voice, or words people might find hard.

 

 

Click here to view the guide.

 

 

Health literacy community of practice

North East and Yorkshire Health Literacy Community of Practice

Health Innovation North East North Cumbria (HI NENC) are working with Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber to provide a way to share learning about health literacy through a Health Literacy Community of Practice. Colleagues from outside of health and social care who may work in local libraries, education, communications and community engagement are all welcome to join this community of practice.

We welcome colleagues from outside health and social care who may work in local libraries, education, communications and community engagement groups to join this community of practice. Please help us by letting others know about this community.

To join the community of practice please contact yoyo.kwan@healthinnovationnenc.org.uk or Victoria.strassheim@healthinnovationnenc.org.uk

NHS Futures Platform

Health Innovation NENC have created an NHS Futures Platform to support the work of the Health Literacy Community of Practice. If you would like to join the NHS Futures Platform, please request an invitation via FutureNHS Collaboration Platform - FutureNHS Collaboration Platform

By joining the NHS Futures Platform, you will be automatically updated on the activity of the community.