Re: Health and literacy collaborations

From: Barb Van Horn (blv1@psu.edu)
Date: Fri Apr 06 2001 - 12:42:21 EDT


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Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 12:42:21 -0400
To: nifl-health@nifl.gov
From: Barb Van Horn <blv1@psu.edu>
Subject: Re: Health and literacy collaborations
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Dear health literacy subscribers,

Debbie Yoho wrote:
>...I was observing that ...there needs to be more dialog between 
>health and literacy practitioners, and that health practioners 
>should turn to literacy folk to collaborate.  What I notice is 
>literacy folk incorporating health information into literacy 
>instructon, and health folk learning about the literacy problem and 
>trying to write easier to read, but often neither effort involves 
>much collaboration beween the two.  What do you think about this?

I agree with Debby's observation. I also notice that some health 
professionals have the impression that the adult basic and literacy 
education system has limited value because programs serve a small 
percentage of adults in need of literacy services -- and because it's 
perceived that adults attend these for very short periods of time. 
Therefore, why should health professionals bother working with them...

As a literacy professional, I was concerned about this perception. 
Perhaps, it isn't shared by that many health professionals. If this 
is a common perception about adult literacy services; however, we 
need to address it if we expect to partner with health professionals 
to improve adults' health knowledge and build the underlying basic 
(e.g., reading, listening, speaking) and higher order (e.g., 
problem-solving, decision-making, metacogntivie) skills that will 
assist adults' in being more able to function effectively within the 
health care system.

-- 
******************
Barbara Van Horn
NIFL-WORKPLACE List Co-Moderator
Co-Director, Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy
Co-Director, Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy
College of Education, The Pennsylvania State University
102 Rackley Building, University Park, PA 16802-3202
Phone:   814-865-5876	Fax:     814-863-6108
E-mail:  BLV1@PSU.EDU

"Moving adult literacy from the Margins to the Mainstream"



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