The Health Literacy Committee had a busy quarter. Between providing health literacy training workshops and attending conferences, the committee is also designing a toolkit. Also, October is National Health Literacy Month!

Provider workshops are now available to book with the Health Literacy Committee. Several committee members trained with St. Vincent Charity Medical Center’s Karen Komondor and are ready to provide educational, interactive workshops for organizations with healthcare providers. These workshops include an engaging lecture and interactive practice components to put theory into action.

The Committee completed four training sessions with the Visiting Nurses Association in Cleveland throughout September and the beginning of October, reaching 91 traveling providers including physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses, medical assistants, and more. Committee member Jane O’Reilly below walks participants through an exercise in empathy and word comprehension.

Jane O’Reilly, nurse at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, teaches staff from the Visiting Nurses Association about health literacy. September 2019.

Next up, students enrolled in Cuyahoga County Community College’s Community Health Worker program this fall will receive this training in November.

Interested in bringing this training to your own organization? Reach out to us here!

On October 4, 2019, the statewide coalition Ohio Health Literacy Partners hosted an Inaugural Health Literacy Partners Conference in Ashland, Ohio at Ashland University. The day-long conference was well attended and praised, featuring an overview of health literacy and its importance, a patient and caregiver panel, and an expert panel on promoting health literacy best practices among organizations, providers and the community. The conference provided continuing education for nurses, social workers and registered dietitians.

Several members of the Healthy Cleveland – Health Literacy Committee are on the Ohio Health Literacy Partners Board, and Healthy Cleveland’s Coordinator, Jessica Jurcak, sat on the latter panel to discuss health literacy outreach among the community in Cleveland. Check out photos below from the conference.