Health Literacy Workshop 2019

July 16, 2019 Blog, Health Literacy, Resources, Videos

Thank you!

The 2019 Health Literacy Training Workshop was a success! We had over 40 caregivers and family members in attendance who were able to walk away more empowered to use these skills with confidence when they next visit the doctor or a pharmacy. We want to thank our sponsor, Baptist Hospital, for the excellent atmosphere and for being concerned about the community, as well as the family caregivers we support. This year’s training team consisted of Janice Williams, Dr Sachiko Terui, Dr Joy Goldsmith, and Dr Megan Lowe.

Our objectives for this year’s training workshop were:

To understand what health literacy is
To understand our communication style
To understand the importance of medication as it relates to caregiving
To be more confident in communicating with our healthcare teams

Janice Williams kicked off the event by explaining the basics of what health literacy really is and why it is so important for everyone to understand, especially family caregivers. Next Drs Goldsmith and Terui tag-teamed about the different communication styles commonly found in families and how caregivers can identify their own styles. They went into great detail about how caregivers can use those verbal and non-verbal communication styles to their advantage when talking with healthcare professionals. After a few questions and discussions with the caregivers, Dr Lowe took over to talk about ways to use plain language techniques at the pharmacy when filling doctor prescriptions. We wrapped up the evening with a quick role playing activity to illustrate some of the great techniques we learned. Special thanks to our caregiver volunteers who stepped in to act out the scenes for the room!