Well, I was stupid, like, to stuff like that. OK, you would take a book and you would try to read about emphysema and cancer and all of that. Sometimes there are words there and if you broke it down in your own way - but it may not mean that at all…I went to the library, and little pamphlets that you get at the doctor’s office about it - I found out on my own. Now you don’t like to ask, what do you think they are saying? That happens and then they know that you don’t have enough schooling to understand whatever they are saying. You don’t like to say, well I haven’t got that much schooling; what does this mean? …They don’t use plain words.
People don’t realize when a person is sick, they change their moods. Such as my
husband; he could be happy right now and in two minutes he could be just the opposite.
There was never nobody to come in and say, “Well now, you take an hour off.”
I had
nobody. … You know, there should have been somebody come out and sit me down
and say, “This is what it is,”
and explain more to me than they did.
“Written information is not enough. There has to be personal contact. It has to be
explained, and people’s questions have to be answered.”
Health Literacy in Rural Nova Scotia Research Project (2004)
Taking Off the Blindfold: Seeing How Literacy Affects Health, A Discussion Paper
Communication gaps between health care providers and people with limited literacy or English language skills create a major barrier to improving health outcomes for a large percentage of Canadian families. In order to respond to the heartfelt plea above and answer “people’s questions,” both family literacy and health practitioners need to work together to develop strategies for improved communication.
Until recently, both research and practice in the fields of health and literacy have remained quite separate, and much of the focus on “health literacy” for adults with literacy challenges has been on plain language. However, as both health and literacy practitioners become increasingly aware of the complex impacts of one domain upon the other, there is growing interest in exploring the more profound relationship between the two and promoting partnerships that integrate “health and literacy.”