Health Literacy

October is Health Literacy Month! Learn how you can get involved.

Click here to visit the Health Literacy Month page.

Why Health Literacy?

Health literacy is more than just the ability to read health information. The most widely accepted definition is, "The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”

The American Medical Association found that "poor health literacy is a stronger predictor of a person's health than age, income, employment status, education level and race." Furthermore, an estimated 90 million Americans suffer from low health literacy. With an average of increase of $7500 in healthcare costs for a low health-literate individual, the financial strain on the U.S. healthcare system due to low health literacy is between $106 billion to $238 billion annually.

Click here to find out how much low health literacy costs central Texas.

The Literacy Coalition's Response:

The Literacy Coalition of  Central Texas has implemented the Health Literacy Initiative to address the issue of low health literacy in Central Texas.

The Initiative forms strategic partnerships with healthcare providers and adult education institutions in order to raise awareness and promote strategies to improve patient-provider communication, and thus improve the health of our community members.

The Health Literacy Initiative's primary method of addressing poor health communication is offering health literacy training and services for both adult educators and healthcare professionals. It is our goal to help individuals be advocates of their own health and that of their families.

Click here to learn about services for healthcare providers.

Click here to learn about trainings for literacy instructors.

The Health Literacy Action Group

The Health Literacy Action Group is a monthly meeting of community members committed to creating a Central Texas that is 100% health-literate. The group’s members come from a diverse professional background, including professors from UT-Austin, trainers from the Center for Health Training, health educators from local clinics, specialists in creating patient-friendly health materials, and Department of State Health Services employees.

Because each group member is a stakeholder in the health literacy of Central Texans, we use the group as a forum to discuss what’s new in the field, opportunities for collaboration amongst the group, questions or difficulties that individuals have within their own health literacy projects, and general advising of each other’s work. The group also plans events and outreach for Health Literacy Month. 

New! The Central Texas Healthcare Resource Directory

LCCT's Healthcare Resource Directory was developed to help Central Texas residents access and navigate the healthcare system.

This Directory is a referral guide for individuals working with low health-literate clients to help them acquire public health benefits and find healthcare providers who accept Medicare, Medicaid, uninsured, under-insured and undocumented.

The updated, 3rd Edition is now available!

Want to learn more? Schedule a workshop?

Attend an Action Group Meeting?

Please Contact:

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