Health Literacy for Health Consumers and Community Members

What do we offer?

It is important for consumer representatives to understand the effects that low health literacy can have on the community. This will help inform a collaborative approach to improve the quality of information offered by health services.

Health Issues Centre offers a three-hour workshop that will teach consumers and community members how to access quality health information and provide them with information about websites that hold evidence-based health information. This information will help consumers and community members to interact better with the health system. The workshop will help consumers be more informed through access to good quality health information relevant to their personal circumstances.

This workshop will cover:

• Definition and types of health literacy
• The effects of low health literacy in the community
• The attributes of a health literate organisations
• The collaborative approach to improving health literacy in the community
• The role of consumer representatives in enhancing the health literacy of their communities.

What do past participants say?

Paul – a Community Advisory Committee member – has been able to make recommendations to his health service about their website, saying that “after attending the workshop, it was easy to see how the presentation of health information can affect someone’s understanding of a topic. I was confident enough to offer feedback on how my service could improve information on their website”

When is the next Health Issues Centre workshop?

This workshop is currently offered as on-site training only.

On-Site Training

For groups of 10 or more, Health Issues Centre staff can deliver this workshop on-site at a location of your choosing. These can be held at any time, but are subject to staff availability.

The sessions are costed as a group fee, plus travel.

We encourage consumers and board members to seek funding from their health service to cover the cost of this training.

For more information

For more information or to book a session at your service, please contact Dr Tere Dawson on (03) 8676 9057 or via email at t.dawson@healthissuescentre.org.au with any queries.