The MSD/NALA Health Literacy Initiative is a public health awareness programme which aims to increase peoples understanding of health literacy and provide tools which help both the general public and the healthcare community to address and overcome this issue.
The Initiative is being led by healthcare company MSD in collaboration with the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA). The activities of the Initiative include:
- a national Awards scheme for health professionals;
- media campaigns to raise public awareness of the issue;
- communications tools to highlight the issue for health professionals; and
- this health literacy website portal to increase knowledge and access to information on health literacy.
In November 2008 the Initiative launched a series of tools to help communication between healthcare professionals and the general public.
We launched the ‘Askme3’ questions with a message urging patients to ask three questions of their doctor, nurse or pharmacist to help people understand and make informed decisions about their health. The questions were developed by an international campaign and adopted by the MSD/NALA Health Literacy Initiative. The questions are:
- What is my main problem?
- What do I need to do?
- Why is it important for me to do this?
The MSD/NALA Health Literacy Initiative will also help health professionals by promoting three Top Tips to help them communicate clearly with the public.
These Top Tips are:
- Avoid medical jargon, use plain English
- Use images or visual aids where possible
- Ask the patient to repeat what you have told them in their own words to make sure they understand.
Following the success of the awards in both 2008 and 2009, the Crystal Clear MSD Health Literacy Awards 2010 have been launched as part of the initiative. Nearly 250 entries were received from healthcare professionals around the country over the past two years. These awards recognise anyone working in the healthcare who is making efforts to ensure their communications with the public are ‘crystal clear’ and easy to understand. People who want to apply for the 2010’s Awards can apply online by clicking on the Crystal Clear Awards box on the homepage. Submissions must be received by no later than Friday 29th January 2010.
