What is Health Literacy?
Health literacy is a person’s ability to find, understand and use health information to make informed choices about their care, and access services and resources. Sometimes you may need to be supported by a health worker to do this. At Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital we’ve been advancing health literacy through our health literacy steering committee for five years.
Holland Bloorview’s health literacy steering committee works with staff, family leaders and system partners to advance and promote health literacy. Check out some of our health literacy achievements:
We have reviewed over 200 Holland Bloorview documents for health literacy.
A health literacy review means that a document is reviewed by the health literacy steering committee and at least one family leader. This ensures that it’s written and presented in a way that is easy for clients, potential clients and their families to understand.
We developed a seal for all documents that go through our |  |
We’re influencing health literacy across the health system by sharing our resources and guidance on how to incorporate the patient voice into organizational health literacy processes.
We are working with organizations such as the University Health Network, Kingston Health Sciences Centre, the Ottawa Hospital and the Ontario Renal Network to advance health literacy.
We’ve been a member of the Canadian Health Literacy and Patient Education Network for two years.
This network is for Canadians working in patient education to discuss adult learning, health literacy, self-management and other core principles of patient education. To learn more about the Canadian Health Literacy and Patient Education Network, email chlpen@uhnresearch.ca.
Interested in learning more about health literacy?
Visit our health literacy page for more information. If you’re interested in becoming a family reviewer, learn about how to get involved in client and family centred care at Holland Bloorview.
