Women learning literacy for health
For International Women’s Day today and beyond, NIACE has invited international and UK writers to contribute to a series of guest blogs on the theme of women, learning, literacy and liberation. Janet Solla – Director of the Community Health and Learning Foundation Ltd – draws on her experience of working in health literacy education to highlight how crucial the health literacy needs of women are.
When I was asked by NIACE to contribute a blog post about women learning literacy for health, with a UK perspective, I spent several days really thinking hard about what I should write. I then started to think about my involvement in community health and wellbeing education for thirteen years and in health literacy education for nine years. I thought about all the women I’ve seen and have worked with in both teaching on and managing the Skilled for Health course – England’s health literacy programme.
This led me to think about all the information and knowledge I now have about the impact of low literacy skills on people’s lives. One thing that really stands out for me though, is that in the main it is still women who take responsibility for the health and wellbeing of their families, regardless of their nationality and background.
It goes without saying then that if women have health literacy needs the impact on their families can be quite profound. Some of the things that women have discussed in the groups I’ve worked with are the difficulties of turning up for doctor’s appointments if they can’t read the appointment letters sent to them. And when they do turn up it’s often hard to explain what is wrong with them or their family member as they don’t have the language skills to describe the type of pain that is being experienced.
Another problem that many women talk about is understanding the information that is being given to them at a time when they or a family member is seriously ill – they often can’t read the leaflets that are provided and they feel too embarrassed and not confident enough to ask questions. The impacts of this can be that medication is not taken properly, lifestyle changes are not made and recovery is put back.
However, what I have also been privileged to witness during my work in this field, is how gaining health literacy skills and knowledge transforms the lives of women. It is truly inspirational to hear women talking about what they have learned and how they are going to apply it and share it. And they mean much wider than to themselves.
How do I know this? Well, the evaluations that have been carried out for Skilled for Health show that the health knowledge and health literacy skills gained by women on the courses, is cascaded to family and friends. Therefore, I really believe that if we truly want to reduce the ever-widening inequalities gap, in other words stop people dying prematurely of preventable diseases, what is needed are women who are health literate and have the skills and knowledge to make informed decisions and changes about their own and their family’s health.
The Community Health and Learning Foundation offers ‘Understanding Skilled for Health’ workshops aimed at adults with the poorest health and learning outcomes. The next workshop takes place in Leicester on 17 April – email janet.solla@chlfoundation.org.uk for more information or to book a space.
