CXA184 Foundations Of Health Literacy
Question:
Task description
This task enables you to:
1) Design a resource with Health Literacy design principles, using Presentation.
Address one health literacy need you identified in your chosen person from assessment 2 (Case study Report).
2) Submit a short overview explaining the health literacy principles you used and the health needs you addressed in your presentation
Case study: older person
Fiona is 76. She lives alone in a small coastal town where she moved with her husband Ted when he retired. It’s a lovely place, but most of the services including the hospital are in the city which is 45 kilometres away.
Ted died suddenly 18 months ago. She’s been lonely since, but doesn’t like to talk about her problems. She worries she’ll bother people.
Fiona worked in a shop but stopped when she had children. Her two daughters live interstate but often visit over summer and ring regularly.
Ted used to do most of the driving. Fiona is ok to get around locally but prefers not to drive at night as her eyes play up.
Fiona has enjoyed an active, healthy life generally, but in the past few years has slowed down a lot. The vegetable garden is hard to keep up with, but she’s not so interested in cooking now anyway with Ted gone. Her joints hurt with arthritis. Her left knee is particularly bad.
Fiona likes to read, and goes to the local library once a fortnight when she does her shopping. However, she finds papers about her pension, or legal and health information confusing with all the different terms and details.
Fiona saw Dr Huxtable for many years and felt comfortable with her. Dr Huxtable retired last year and Fiona doesn’t know the other doctors so well. She saw one when she had the flu and felt like he talked down to her.
Her father had a stroke when he was in his 70s which affected his mobility and speech. Fiona doesn’t want this to happen to her as she wants to be independent. She’s not quite sure what causes strokes.
Answer:
Overview
Health literacy is considered to be as essential for all but it should essentially be developed among elderly people as elderly people are more prone to certain specific chronic diseases and unbearable health conditions (Australian Commission on Safety & Quality in Healthcare, 2018). Sufficient knowledge about the diseases suffered by them provides them with the idea related to the measures to be used by them in order to improve their health outcomes.
The educational interventions can improve health literacy among the elderly people as it improves their self-efficiency by providing them with the knowledge regarding medications and preventive measures on daily basis. As majority of elderly people suffer from various chronic diseases such as Diabetes, Arthritis, blood pressure, respiratory and heart diseases, it is essential to take medicines on time and not to miss a single dose. The use of internet is a most common method to develop health literacy among elderly people as majority of people uses various internet sources and social sites to get in touch with their friends and relatives. Through internet sources, the information related to self-management of such chronic diseases can be provided to the people. Such self-management programs can help in providing quick medical treatment in case of chronic diseases as well as to improve patient outcomes (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2015). The educational programs should be designed specifically for the elderly people online so that they need not to go anywhere to gain knowledge about what measures to be taken by them for the health related issues being faced by them.
Through internet and multimedia sources, elderly people can be provided with the sufficient information regarding how to take medications, exercise and daily routines and diets to be followed. However, to achieve this purpose, the material information to be provided on various sources should be in simple and easy form so that it could be understood even to a lame person (safetyandquality.gov.au, 2014). The language should be such to be easily understandable by the elderly people. The educational programs should be designed in a sequential or diagrammatic manner so that elderly people can easily understand the processes or procedures to be followed. In addition to it, certain guidelines or booklet can also be provided to the elderly people from whom they can take guidance from. Such educational programs online and information on internet sources will keep the elderly people busy in developing their knowledge regarding the disease or diseases they experience and they will better understand their existing health conditions or when they need healthcare (Misra, et al., 2010).
The elderly people can get extensively benefitted through such educational interventions and can better self-manage their health conditions and become able to take care of their health so that they could be prevented from various common chronic diseases prevalent among people of such age group. They can develop good health practices, exercise habits and healthy diet and develop healthy daily routines so as to get rid of various chronic diseases which will reduce the mortality rate among elderly people and make them self-sufficient so that they can manage their health and life on their own.
References
Australian Commission on Safety & Quality in Healthcare, 2018. Health Literacy. [Online]
Available at: https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/our-work/patient-and-consumer-centred-care/health-literacy/
[Accessed 4 October 2018].
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2015. HEALTH LITERACY: A summary for Executives & Managers, s.l.: s.n.
Misra, R., Mark, J. H., Khan, S. & Kukafka, R., 2010. Using Design Principles to Foster Understanding of Complex Health Concepts in Consumer Informatics Tools. AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, pp. 492-496.
safetyandquality.gov.au, 2014. NATIONAL STATEMENT ON HEALTH LITERACY, s.l.: s.n.
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