Health Literacy

Health Literacy

Janet Solla Community Health and Learning Foundation Janet Solla – Director 07725 087186

Health literacy is defined as the knowledge and capabilities that enable people to function in a health setting. The ‘hook’ to get people involved was healthy eating, in which people are interested.

Who were the learners and in what context(s) were they involved in learning and for what purposes?

• People living in areas of multiple deprivation with low health literacy. This means they have difficulty making healthier choices for themselves and their families or acting on health information and advice

• Mainly parents of young children, who are involved because they want to understand more about how to make healthier choices for themselves and their families, particularly their children.

• Learning takes place in a variety of community and early years settings

• Mainly, but not exclusively, issues around healthy eating, shopping on a budget and physical activity.

What processes, approaches or systems did you use to gather wider impact than the learning goals determined by the learning programme?

• We have a mixed base line and end of course questionnaire where we ask about health behaviours and habits e.g. how much fruit and veg they ate, how often they cook a meal from scratch etc

• External Evaluation of Skills for Health and Health in Early Years HEY! with the latter attempting to understand how behaviour change has been sustained. (HEY! was funded by Danone.)

• Case studies to illustrate and identify individual family impacts.

What impact was revealed?

• Increased knowledge and understanding about the topic area

• Increased confidence in making healthier choices or self-managing existing condition such as diabetes

• 88% reported behaviour change in terms eating healthier and 65% taking more exercise.

• 80% Progress on to other learning, with 29% of those already found or registered on a course

• People saving money (as much as £60 p.w.)

• One family bought dining table

The external evaluation of the programme looked at long term changes and showed that changes in behaviour (such as cooking a meal from scratch more often) were sustained.

Critique

Name of project/initiative: Health Literacy

• Changes health and lifestyle of families involved through early years’ and community settings
• Builds group and individual confidence and increases self-agency as well as reduces social isolation
• NHS usage reduced – savings of £3-5 billion
• Targets people with low levels of LLN achievement
• Cross-sectoral
• Training of trainers programme supports sustainability

• A process, which asks questions about: What changes? For whom? How?
• Health is the attraction – not ‘learning’ – but participants progress to learning through trusted people – focus is on engagement and a fun experience
• The experience is about the participants and not the curriculum
• Formal and informal assessments
• Embedded LLN
• Multi-agency approach
• Multi-faceted approach to data gathering: case studies, focus groups, quantitative data, learner diaries and long and short-term impacts
• Employers see how improvements in health favourably influences absenteeism
• Case studies offer insight into individual stories and changes (Health and Early Years HEY)
• CSR funding from Danone

• Based on theory of change model: what has been put in ie staff, time, materials etc; what are the outcomes and impacts? Process model clear and transferable to others
• Outcomes star captures outputs and outcomes
• Impact events for stakeholders communicates process and outcomes
• Model of community delivery, training trainers and user assessment is replicable

• Theory of change model
• Use of CSR funding from a manufacturer linked to the sector (Danone) – an approach to working with the corporate sector
• Links to family learning
• Developing LLN skills in a motivational approach
• Links with public health services