Health Literacy in Regards to Effective Communication

Question: Discuss about theHealth Literacy in Regards to Effective Communication. Answer: Introduction Health literacy is related to the skills required obtain, impute and process information pertaining to problems related to health like treatment and preventive methods of diseases, safety measures and accident prevention, primary medical aid, drugs and alcohol, emergencies and living a healthy life (Australian Bureau of Statistics). However, there is variation in the way health literacy is understood and applied. Ethnic and linguistic diversity is also an important barrier which should be considered, especially in a context to highly diversified country. Cultural competency is a crucial strategy for minimising the disparity in healthcare access and quality of healthcare provided by the organization. A health care system which is culturally competent can help to ameliorate the standards of health and care. It also helps in removing racial and cultural health disparities. Training about the cultural beliefs and diverse ethnic issues to service providers of the health organization would be beneficial. Also making strategies which overcomes system and language related hurdles to patient service would help to achieve goal of the organization. Effective Communication Communication is one of the foundations of health care. Effective communication is must for the interaction in healthcare. It includes making appointments and registering, discussing the medical condition, treatments and understanding the precautions and care. Health communication is stated as the interpersonal and communication with the mass activities focusing on enhancing the health of people and masses (Ishikawa Takahiro, 2010). Health Literacy in Regards to Effective Communication Health literacy is recognised as a determinant of health and quality of health care. Poor communication is one of the reasons of low quality health care in the health care organization. Consideration of health literacy in relation to language and culture is important in diverse health care environment. Effective communication should be observed at the level of organization, administration and personal terms to meet the diverse needs of health care. There is rise in recognition of the level of interrelation in health literacy and effective communication but only few attempts have been made to integrate them, for example, in the health professional training or developing organizational standards. Issues Health literacy status and effective communication between patient and the organization can be observed through the behaviour of the patients. They face several challenges. In many cases patients have issues learning about their medical conditions.Many of them lack the confidence in completing the medical forms by themselves. Few also require help in reading the hospital material. A discretion depicting the relation of health related knowledge to effective communication is also observed. Communication is measured differently in different framework of health literacy .About 25% population of northern territory in aboriginal in Australia and approximately 70% speak different languages at home other than English. It is more in remote areas. Some reports suggest that the difference in cultural and educational backgrounds between the patients and the health professionals lead to problems in health literacy (Lowell Schmitt 2014). Language barriers may be one the important factor in obstructing interactive patient-physician communication. For example, if an aboriginal patient seeks a health care physician from the same ethnic background, for the treatment of a particular disease and the traditional remedies. Both of them will have a comfortable and good quality communication leading a high level of health literacy because they speak the same language and share the common background. On the other hand, if there are an aboriginal patient (who does not speak English) and a non- aboriginal professional discussing a particular disease without using an interpreter. They will have a poor communication and a low level of health literacy because of the language and cultural gap. The patient may not have the idea about the medical terms and the medical language associated with the disease and the health care professional may not understand the patients knowledge about the disease and the conditions. This will affect the standards of the organization and the service they provide. The culturally bound beliefs, values of a person influence his knowledge of interpreting healthcare messages. Studies suggest that health literacy is a problem associated not just with the professionals working for the urban or poor population but it is an extensive problem associated with several communities. For example, the elder citizens mostly have less knowledge about health literacy in comparison to young generation which leads to poor communication and thus affecting the service of health care. (Baker, Gazmararian Sudano Patterson 2000). Getting information from internet is also a challenge for the elderly, poor and non English speaking population. Quality of the health information received is also not checked (Smith Malone, 2008; Walji et al., 2004). Studies are being conducted to determine the patients who are mostly vulnerable because of low health literacy. The test of foundation health literacy in adults (TOFHLA) and rapid estimate of adult literacy in medicine (REALM) are in use to check the health literacy and translated into many languages to be used in different cultures ( Dewalt, 2004) Merits and Demerits Health literacy can help in developing a good understanding of diseases and the health care organization services among the patients. As per the study conducted (Berkman) people having sufficient knowledge about health literacy can reach out, understand the health information opinions and instructions of the physician. This will lead to an effective communication and thus will helps in improving the management of chronic diseases, prevention of infections, and spread of severe viral diseases. A study religious leaders lead the way by WHO in Jordan gives a good example of health literacy in regards to effective communication. The study helped in improving the frequency and number of the religious leaders who guide the public about family planning, reproductive health and gender equality. The leaders were trained to improve their communication skills with the masses, knowledge about the health issues. The results were good as the family planning rate increased by approx 30% in four yea rs. Australia is a country with people from diverse cultural background. Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) population from countries where the native language is not English. They are prone to develop preventable chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus, respiratory disorders and cardio vascular diseases. The factors responsible for this include the lack of access to the services provided by the health organization. The CALD population expressed that they require more access to interpreters and communication related to their culture and education. They consider themselves as being discriminated and also experience racism which will create an unhealthy environment in the country. This problem can be attributed to the miscommunication which resulted due to lack of health literacy among the CALD population. Challenges The major challenges faced by the health professional include interacting with patients having poor health literacy and wining their trust. Patient with different socio-economic status, cultural background, education face difficulty while interacting with health professional from different background. The comfort level of the patient is also low while discussing a health issue with the professional. Also many times the patient does not prefer the same organization each time they require care. This hampers the quality of services by the organization. Strategies to Overcome the Hurdles Many organizations and professionals believe that communication is more effective when it is patient-centred, fulfilling patients need and preferences. (Stewart, 2001). The organization should be responsible for maintaining a patient- centred communication in every respect, from providing patient forms, reports, patients educational material and training professionals to be able to have a better communication with the patients. Professional should develop their skills to identify health literacy assumptions and biases as a part of cultural understanding. Strategies should be made to reach populations that may not understand the information and jargon in English. This includes patients who have a limited or no English proficiency, low health literacy or having diverse ethnic background. In addition to this health care disparities occur when miscommunication disproportionally affects certain patient populations. (IOM, 2001). It is important to overcome such problems to meet the national health policy goals. A health care service provider must also be aware of the ethical values of the patients to provide better services. It should serve the needs of the people related to diverse cultural background. Health literacy, cultural competence and linguistic competence are must in order to maintain an effective communication because these integrations are important for health care to serve the needs of diverse communities. (Pleasant Mc kinney, 2011). Although oral communication skills are recognised as an important feature of health literacy, some scientists consider cultural and conceptual knowledge, the use of information by an individual and interaction between health service providers and administration should be included in health literacy. Few other consider that the measures are inadequate. Scientist suggest to include the skill like cultural a conceptual knowledge, the way individuals assess the information and their communication with the professionals to be also measured to overcome the bridge of ineffective communication and create a better health environment in the society. Conclusion The goal of using techniques and methods to improve health literacy among the professionals and the patients from diverse culture should be to enhance quality of health for the people acknowledging patients understanding about their health condition treatment and precautions. The way they assess the various information regarding the health issues. This can be achieved by developing a better patient physician interactions which involves effective communication techniques like patient-centred communication and ensuring their skills and knowledge about the issues .the barriers which limit the professionals in improving the communication should be removed. New ways should be created to overcome the hurdles by the system to improve the effective health literacy and reduce the demands of the patients. References Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2009). Australian Social Trends: Using Statistics to paint a picture ofAustralian Society. Cat no. 4102.0. ABS: Canberra. Ishikawa, H., Takahiro, K. (2010). Health Literacy and health communication. BioPshychoSocialMedicine, 4(18). Viewed on 15 September 2016 from https://www.bpsmedicine.com Baker, D., Gazmararian, G. A., Sudano, J., Patterson, M. (2000). The association between age andhealth literacy among elderly persons. Journals of Gerontology Series A-Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 55(6), 368. Smith, E. A., Malone, R. E. (2008) Philip Morriss health information website appears responsible but undermines public health. Public Health Nursing. 25, 554-564. Walji, M., Sagaram, S., Sagaram, D., Meric-Bernstam, F., Johnson, C., Mirza, N. Q., Bernstam, E. (2004). 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Jones and Bartlett: Wall Street Burlington, https://books.google.co.in/books?id=kf9_IDhdRdcCprintsec=frontcoverdq=communication+and+health+literacyhl=ensa=Xved=0ahUKEwi0p8iL8Y7PAhUBPBQKHX8cCkEQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepageq=communication%20and%20health%20literacyf=false