Events

Health literacy as a shared resource

2024 Health Literacy Seminar 4

This seminar is a panel discussion exporing the importance of health literacy as a shared resource. When we think about health literacy, we often think about an individual's health literacy but health literacy isn't just an individual skill; it's shared among groups, like families and communities, and grows through interactions with others, such as peer education. 

Date held: Monday 10th December, 2024.
Format: Zoome

Panel speakers: 
Andi Dwipasatya | Bilingual Community Educator - NSW Education on FGM/C
Dr Ngatho Mugo | Community Education Officer - NSW Education Program on FGM/C
Dipti Zachariah | Deputy Director - Statewide Health Literacy Hub
Dr Ben Harris-Roxas | University of New South Wales Sydney

Health Literacy in Regional Communities (Part 2): A focus on community engagement

2024 Health Literacy Webinar 2

In partnership with the NSW Health RegionalHealth Division, we are pleased to offer thiswebinar focused on engaging diversecommunities in regional settings. The seminarwill present a range of tools and strategies tosupport consumer engagement and co-design; key pillars of health literacy policies at state andnational levels.

Date: Thursday 11 April, 2024
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Format: Zoom (with Q&A)

Presenters

Brendon Cutmore, Peta Andreone and Lynn Lelean | Regional Health Division, NSW Health
Ro Stirling-Kelly | Mid North Coast Local Health District
Leysha Roberts | Dunghutti Woman + University of Sydney Consumer Research Assistant
Riley Bice and Gerald (Ged) May | Northern NSW Local Health District and Healthy North Coast

Health Literacy in Regional Communities (Part 1): Local Experiences and Transferable Learnings

2024 Health Literacy Webinar 1

This seminar will present a range of practical health literacy tools and strategies to address health literacy in regional communities (and beyond!), building on successful approaches applied in Gippsland, Victoria over the past 10 years.

This is the first in a two-part series on health literacy in regional communities.

Date: Tuesday 12 March, 2024
Time: 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Format: Zoom (with Q&A)

Health literacy, disability, and face-to-face health communication

2023 Health Literacy Seminar ‘Spotlight’ Series: Seminar 3

This seminar is the third in our ‘spotlight’ series on disability. 

You may be familiar with health literacy guidelines for face-to-face health communication, such as using teach-back. But do these strategies help make face-to-face health communication accessible to people with disabilities?

In this seminar our expert panel will:

• reflect on the relationship between health literacy and accessibility guidelines
• point you to practical resources to improve accessibility of your health communication. 

Date: Tuesday 10th October
Time: 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Format: Zoom (with Q&A)

Panel members:
     
Dr Isabelle Boisvert
Centre for Disability Research and Policy
University of Sydney

Fiona Murphy
Communication for Safe Care,
South Western Sydney Local Health District

Dr Annmaree Watharow
Centre for Disability Research and Policy
University of Sydney


Panel Chair

Dr Kim Bulkeley
Centre for Disability Research and Policy
University of Sydney

Health literacy, disability, and digital health communication

2023 Health Literacy Seminar ‘Spotlight’ Series: Seminar 2

This seminar is the second in our ‘spotlight’ series on disability. 

You may be familiar with health literacy guidelines for digital health communication. Examples are putting important information at the top of the webpage and simplifying navigation. But do these strategies help make digital health communication accessible to people with disabilities?

In this seminar our expert panel will:

• reflect on the relationship between health literacy and accessibility guidelines
• point you to practical resources to improve accessibility of your health information. 

Date: Tuesday 12th September
Time: 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Format: Zoom (with Q&A)


Panel members:
     
Dr Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes
Indigenous Studies, Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne

Kellie Hammerstein
Monash Health

Claire Eagleson
Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry (3DN) UNSW

Panel Chair

Dr Kim Bulkeley
Centre for Disability Research and Policy
University of Sydney

Health literacy, disability, and written health information

2023 Health Literacy Seminar ‘Spotlight’ Series: Seminar 1

This seminar is the first in our ‘spotlight’ series on disability. 

You may be familiar with health literacy guidelines for written health information. Examples are using common words and informative headings. But do these strategies help make written health information accessible to people with disabilities?

In this seminar our expert panel will:
reflect on the relationship between health literacy and accessibility guidelines
point you to practical resources to improve accessibility of your health information. 

Date: Monday 28th August, 2023
Time: 11:00am-12:00pm
Format: Zoom (with Q&A)

Panel members:
     
Dr Janelle Weise
Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry (3DN) UNSW

Clare Woods
Project Grow
Central and Eastern Sydney PHN

Tahli Hind
Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry (3DN) UNSW

Panel Chair

Dr Kim Bulkeley
Centre for Disability Research and Policy
University of Sydney

Readability and Translation Quality

Assessing the readability of written health information is the most common way to evaluate whether it is likely to be easily understood by our patients and consumers. But did you know readability is also an important predictor of translation quality?

This seminar will cover:
-    What is readability?
-    How is readability calculated?
-    The relationship between readability and translation quality
-    Tips for improving translation quality  

Speakers

Professor Jan- Louis Kruger 
Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University

Amy Wang
Health Cater Interpreter Service (NSW Health) and Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators

Safaa Malaeb
Translator, Editor and Cultural checker, I&G Pty Ltd

Baryalay Malyar
NSW Health, Multicultural NSW, Hunter New England Health Care Interpreter Service and Department of Home Affairs

Health Literacy and Shared Decision Making

This seminar will explore the concepts of health literacy and shared decision making, including how they intersect and how we can facilitate both to enable meaningful patient engagement.
 
Our panel will then discuss local and state level shared decision-making case studies which have been implemented, including with key priority populations. These include shared decision-making training for staff, patients and consumers as well as a variety of decision support tools

Presenter
Kirsten McCaffery, Director, Sydney Health Literacy Lab

How health literate are our health services? Measuring and making change to improve organisational health literacy

Health literate organisations make it easy for people to find, understand and apply health information so they can have better health and access to care. A health literacy self-assessment can be an important starting point for improving our services and ensuring that we are meeting the needs of our patients and consumers. They are an increasingly important aspect of health service accreditation.
 
This seminar will present a range of practical tools to measure the health literacy of organisations and discuss strategies for engaging consumers in this process. Worked examples will illustrate how services can implement changes to improve health literacy based on their assessments.
 

Presenters

• Associate Professor Jane Lloyd, University of New South Wales
• Riley Bice, Northern New South Wales LHD
• Taya Prescott, Northern New South Wales LHD
   

COVID-19 Knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours in greater western sydney

Between March and July 2021, the Sydney Health Literacy Lab, WSLHD, SWSLHD and NBMLHD conducted a survey in 12 languages to understand people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours regarding COVID-19 and to explore the impact of the pandemic on our culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
 
In this seminar, we are excited to present the results of this study with over 700 participants for the first time. We will discuss how the findings can help to address important concerns, improve health outcomes and create more resilient and healthy communities now and in a post-COVID world.

Presenters

• Dr. Julie Ayre, Sydney Health Literacy Lab
• Yvonne Santalucia, South Western Sydney LHD

SHLL Editor: Making Health Information Easy To Understand

The Sydney Health Literacy Lab has developed a new online health literacy editor. The editor gives you real-time feedback on how easy health information is to understand – not just the Grade reading score, but also uncommon words, public health jargon, passive voice, and use of acronyms.

Join us in this interactive, online seminar to learn more about the editor, including how it can improve your health literacy writing skills, how to get access to the editor, and how to use it.

Presenters:

• Dr Julie Ayre, Sydney Health Literacy Lab
• Dragana Ceprnja Westmead Hospital

Looking Forward, Looking Back: Applying Lessons in COVID Communication to emerging vaccination issues

Communicating in a way that is accessible and appropriate for hard to reach groups is a crucial step towards reducing health inequality. This seminar outlines what we have learned about this from our COVID19 experience so far, and discusses how lessons learned can be applied to emerging vaccination issues.

Panel members

• Kirsten McCaffery, Director, Sydney Health Literacy Lab
• Holly Seale, Associate Professor, UNSW Medicine
• Dipti Zachariah, Multicultural Health Team Leader, WSLHD
• Sia Anthopoulos, Director, Corporate Communications, WSLHD

Seminar 3: Communicating with hard to reach groups: A practical workshop

Even the best health services are of limited use if they don’t reach those who need them most. Communicating in a way that is accessible and appropriate for hard to reach groups is a crucial step towards reducing health inequality.

Seminar 2: Telehealth: Getting the message across and communicating effectively

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, many health services have reduced face-to-face appointments to reduce the risk of patient exposure to the virus. For some patients, telehealth provides a useful alternative during this time. However, communicating virtually is new for many of us and can be challenging.

In this seminar, two health professionals with extensive experience in telehealth will reflect on what they have learned about communicating via this medium, along with strategies and tips. This will be followed by a live (virtual) Q & A session.

Seminar 1: E-Health Literacy: What, Why, How?

eHealth literacy has been defined as “the ability to seek, find, understand, and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to addressing or solving a health problem” (Norman & Skinner, 2006). As our health system becomes increasingly digitalised, understanding the eHealth literacy skills of our patients also becomes more important. In this seminar you will learn more about eHealth literacy; what it is, why it’s important, how we can measure it, and what we can do about it.
 
Presented by Julie Ayre (Health Literacy Hub), Professor Julie Redfern (Westmead Applied Research Centre - Julie.redfern@sydney.edu.au), and Marlene Payk (Diabetes Endocrinology and Ambulatory Care, Westmead Hospital - marlene.payk@health.nsw.gov.au).

This presentation was scheduled for April 7^th 2020 but due to changes taking place in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the seminar was recorded and posted online on June 4^th.

Seminar 3: A new way to produce written patient information in WLSHD

Western Sydney Local Health District is introducing a new system and online portal to produce patient information based on best-practices in health literacy and in partnership with consumers. This includes all forms of written communication with patients, family members, and the wider general public such as letters, consent forms, patient education materials, pamphlets etc.

Seminar 2: A Practical Workshop For Producing Easy-to-read Patient Information

The Australian Commission’s National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards require us to provide information to our patients that is “easy to understand and use”. However, we know that much of our written patient information does not meet this national requirement. This practical workshop will provide strategies and resources for producing easy-to-read information in an interactive, hands-on format.

Seminar 1: Using Teachback To Communicate With Patients

Despite our best efforts, we know that patients remember and understand less than half of what their providers explain to them. Teach-back is a simple, evidence-based technique to improve communication with our patients. This practical workshop will introduce teachback, and provide practical examples and resources to support you to use teachback in your practice.

Seminar 4: Health Literacy and the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards

This Seminar focusses on the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards and how they apply to your service in the context of health literacy. It will also highlight some of the newer requirements to be met by health care organisations in the soon-to-be introduced revised Standards in 2019.

Seminar 3: Measuring health literacy

Measuring health literacy provides a basis for improving how we communicate with our patients and can help to improve the care we deliver to our diverse community. This seminar provides an overview of, and information about, tools which can be used to measure the health literacy of our population in clinical practice and in research. It includes practical advice about measuring health literacy in different settings, and provide information about where to find validated measures which are fit-for-purpose.

Presenters: Ms Naomi Poole, Director of Partnering with Consumers - Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare and Mr Luke Sloane, WSLHD Director of Clinical Governance

Seminar 2: How to develop easy-to-read health materials

This seminar focuses on the application of specific tools to develop health materials which are both understandable and actionable. The seminar will guide participants in identifying design and organisational elements to support reading ease and describes how to use tools to assess the literacy and numeracy demand of written materials.

Seminar 1: What is health literacy? Why is it important? What can we do about it?

This seminar provides an introduction to health literacy, including an overview of various definitions, and an explanation as to why health literacy is a resource for improving health and reducing health inequalities.