Summary Of Literacy And Health Literacy

In order to propogate the knowledge of above determinants and improve health status of Canadians, Health Canada has set up a number of community heath organizations and agencies. The work of these agencies can consist of creating awareness, improving socio-economic status, advocating better working conditions and so on. Unfortunately, many groups such as aboriginal people, recent immigrants and people with disabilities experience challenges in accessing these resources and still cotinue to lead an unhealthy life.

I really enjoyed reading your post. This is a good example of how poor health literacy can have a detrimental effect on a patient’s health. In a journal article the authors stated that health literacy is a strong predictor of a person’s health status (Schwatz et al., 2013). As seen in the AMA video and in the example that given here, it is clear that health literacy has a direct effect on one’s ability to make important healthcare decisions. Your example also reminds me that fear may play a big role in health literacy and one’s ability to make healthcare decisions. Making healthcare decision for yourself at time can be a daunting task no matter the culture, level or education, of background. It is so important that providers consider

Health literacy has been demarcated as the measurement of the individual’s capacity to obtain, understand and process simple health information. It is needed to make satisfactory health decisions and determine services needed to treat or prevent illness. Health literacy requires knowledge from many topics, comprising the patient’s own body, appropriate conducts towards healthy results and the difficulties to understand the health system. It is influenced by many conditions such as our communication skills, age, socio-economic status, and cultural background, past experiences, educational level and mental health status (U.S. Department of

One of the biggest barriers facing Aboriginals is that the government does not consider health an Aboriginal right, and instead endorse that a special relationship exists between themselves and the First Nations people regarding health (Adelson, 2005). Aboriginal people regularly have negative experiences within the Canadian health care system since they have been marginalized and oppressed from the dominant system of care due to centuries of injustice (Hole et al.,

This paper will discuss a particular social determinant of health and how it is and will further effect Canadian communities. The reason for this assignment is to critically examine the article “Confronting what makes us sick” by Ryan Meili that discusses the social determinants of health that tend to make Canadians sick, in the format of an analytic essay. The issue that is being argued is the inequality of rights among Canadians. The issue that will be the main source of multiple issues will be healthcare and how it is not evenly distributed among Canadians. Inequality manages to affect people all over the world and is finally becoming a problem that the government is forced to address (Meili, 2013). Lack of housing can

“Education in our country is the social service equivalent of Katrina. Part of the challenge that we face in this nation is that we have to confront the fact that we have systems that are designed essentially to fail kids,” states Geoffrey Canada in his address at the Social Justice Leadership Conference (Newport, 2011). Canada has an innate ability to blatantly state the problems facing communities in this country. However he is not just talking; he is doing something about it.

Cynthia Haven is the writer of an article called “The New Literacy: Stanford study finds richness and complexity in students' writing” that is a study based on the amount of writing college students do. She followed students at Stanford during their undergraduate years and the first year after that. She discovered that today’s students are writing more than any generation before it. Cynthia had the students she was studying submit all of the writing they did, academic or personal. She found that only 62 percent of the work submitted to her was for classes; the rest of the material was “Life writing”.

Another way that the Canadian government can address income inequality as a social determinant of health is to increase equity for education. Post-secondary education is critical in determining an individual’s career success; a higher level of education results in higher earnings, which in turn result in better health. In Canada, provincial governments play a decisive role in student enrolment and the government should invest in early childhood education as a long-term educational benefit. Not only does education impact income on an individual level, but people with low educational attainment also limit an economy’s capacity to produce and grow. Therefore, increasing equity in education will help to decrease the problem of income inequality.

While that was kind of an exaggeration, we really need to overhaul our system here in Canada. All 13 provinces/territories get a shameful score when it comes to access to medical specialists, modern diagnostics equipment and emergency room services. In reality, we need more access to specialized services and more confidence in the government. Secondly, the depression and suicide rates have skyrocketed since the 1990s frequently in teens. This all ties into the horrible education provided here in Canada. We already gave an example of how students spend most of their time working for the teacher instead of learning. This causes a lot of anxiety for students and overworks them to the point of depression or even suicide. You are probably asking how does this relate to the quality of health in Canada? This would put Canada the utmost top worldwide for suicide rates among teens and young adults, which is something we certainly do not want. Finally, we’re going to address the controversial topic known as smoking. Smoking heavily decreases the quality of life here in Canada. We even suppress the United States for daily adult smokers! The only way to fix this is to make smoking illegal. It ruins our brains as well as our bodies. Haven’t been convinced? Well the CTUM (Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring) did a research that more and more kids in some places exceed the rate of exposure to

To start off this lecture is about, “Comparative Health Policy: Health on the Frontlines”, with our two quest speaker. The first quest speaker Dr. Jim Sugiyama, MD, discussed the front lines of primary care. Also, Tim Heffernan, retired high school teacher and member of Socialist Alternative, Politics of education. Dr. Jim discussed the various perspectives in health policy. His perspective was on the view on the health care system being a part of collectivism, mutual support, and health rights. He explains that the health care system is a part of non-medical structure of Canadian determinates of health. Finally, the lecture touched base on how our health systems fit into the greater structure of Canadian governance, and how it is globalized,

In the article “Social Determinants of Health” by Dennis Raphael explains that Canadians have developed health promotion and population health concepts that direct attention to various social determinants of health (D, Rapheal, 2004, p 1). This shows that Health Promotion can indeed address some of the social determinants of health such as low income and social status, education, employment, child development, health services, and culture. The social determinant of health has an effect on Canadian Health, and government and community services should ensure everyone has access to education and support to ensuring healthy lifestyles.

Social determinants of health are social, economic and physical factors that affect the health of individuals in any given population. There are fourteen social determinants of health but Income is perhaps the most important of these because it shapes living conditions, influences health related behaviors, and determines food security. In Canada, people with lower incomes are more susceptible to disease/ conditions, higher mortality rate, decreased life expectancy and poorer perceived health than people with high incomes. In numerous Canadian studies and reports, there has been more emphasis on health being based on an individual’s characteristics, choices and behaviours, rather than the role that income plays as a social determinant of health. Although Canada has one of the highest income economies in the world and is comprised of a free health care system, many low income families are a burden on the system because of the physical and mental health issues influenced by income insecurity. Low income individuals are heavier users of health care services because they have lower levels of health and more health problems than do people with higher incomes. This essay will address income as a social determinant of health in three key sections: what is known on the issue, why the issue is important and how can health and public policies address the issue. The main theme that runs through the essay is the income related health inequalities among low income groups compared to

Health literacy is defined as "The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions" (Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, 2010), the word Health literacy first appeared in 1974 in a paper which calls for “education standards for all grade school levels in USA” (Carolyn Speros, 2004) . Some recent works suggest that there is a relation between literacy, low health and premature deaths (Christina Zarcadoolas et al, 2005).

Health illiteracy has become referred to as the silent epidemic. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy showed only 12 percent of adults have proficient health literacy. That means nine out of ten adults may lack the needed skills to adequately manage their health and prevent disease.

Health literacy is an essential determinant of health. Health literacy is the degree in which people have the ability to obtain process and understand fundamental health services and information in order to make informed health decisions throughout different phases of life. Patients who are better educated and informed about their options and who understand the evidence behind certain methodologies may have better health outcomes. On the other hand, low health literacy leads to many health problems. In fact, it seems to be the “single biggest cause of poor health outcomes” (Kickbusch 208). Low health literacy inhibits self-advocacy in health care settings. Patients with limited literacy cannot actively participate in health-related decisions