The strongest predictor of health is literacy skills.
In 2022, 130 million people in the United States could not read a simple story to their children much less understand the instructions on a medication bottle. What does this mean for health care and family oriented professionals? What can they do to help low literacy families care for their children?
In 2004, Kansas Head Start Association, with the help of generous funders, developed a short and flexible health literacy training for professionals in Head Start programs based on the book What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick. The project was successful in Head Start settings, and KHSA expanded outreach to hospitals, safety net clinics, WIC, public health departments, schools, congregations, and community groups.
Training for Professionals to Help Parents Manage Minor Illness and Injury
Vision:
All parents will have the knowledge to make appropriate choices about their children’s health care for minor illness and injury, resulting in healthier children, better resource utilization, and decreased costs.
Goals:
Professionals working with families understand the impact of low health literacy in health care.
Professionals use research-based methods to teach parents how to use the book What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick. Outreach efforts to parents of children enrolled in Medicaid will be a priority.
Parents receive the book with instructions; then use the book to help make appropriate choices about their children’s health care.
Approach:
Professionals attend a two-hour training on health literacy and teaching methods.
Professionals teach parents how to use the book in one-on-one or group setting
Questions?
Keep reading to learn more and to find out how to register for trainings. If, after you have read the information below, you still have questions or would like more information, please contact Karen Brichoux.
How Does the Book What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick Help Parents and Caregivers?
What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick provides useful, easy to understand information to help parents make appropriate decisions about their child’s health.
The book focuses on health issues for children birth to 8 years old.
The book is intended to be accessible to parents with low literacy.
The content is generally written at a 4th grade reading level.
It is available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
Before receiving this book:
72% of families owned no health related book
After training with a health professional on how to use this book*:
Doctor visits decreased by 46%
ER visits decreased by 55%
“School” days missed decreased by 64%
Work missed decreased by half
*See Outcome Research section below
Training for Health Professionals
Health professionals partnering with KHSA in the Parent Health Literacy Project are asked to complete a free 2-hour live online training that covers the following topics.
In the training:
We talk about health literacy: What it looks like. What happens if someone is not health literate. And how individuals, families, and society are impacted today by low health literacy.
We discuss working with adults with low literacy and working with families from different cultures.
We share research based tips on effective instruction when working with parents with low literacy—using plain language (kitchen talk), repetition, chunking, and Teach Back.
For some health professionals, this information will be a review of concepts they already know. For others, these ideas may be less familiar. The training is meant to provide a chance to network and interact with professionals across the state who experience similar challenges, so we encourage sharing and talking.
For the last part of the training, we provide break-out time where attendees can role play teaching parents how to use the book or , for those who would rather talk about how they plan to share the book with families in their program, this might be a time for exchanging ideas.
After receiving training, partners may order copies of the What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick books from KHSA to give to the families they serve.
Questions? Want to find upcoming trainings?
For questions or more information, contact Karen Brichoux.
To view our upcoming Parent Health Literacy trainings, check out our Events page or sign up for our weekly e-news.
Funding Partners
The Parent Health Literacy project has been supported by investments from numerous funders and partners since its inception in 2004.
The Institute for Healthcare Advancement. IHA provides KHSA and our trained partners a discount on the What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick books
United Methodist Health Ministry Fund
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Foundation
Kansas Department of Health and Environment
Lawrence-Douglas County Health Board and the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners
Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City
Lawrence Memorial Hospital Endowment Association
Kansas Health Foundation Recognition Grant
Outcome Research Data
Two research projects have studied the impact and outcomes of the Parent Health Literacy project. Each report focused on a specific delivery method.
1. The 2010 report tracked parents with a pre and post-test over three months after receiving a 30-40 minute 1:1 training on how to use the "What To Do When Your Child Gets Sick" book. The results showed significant decrease in unnecessary ER and doctor visits and missed days of work for parents and school for children.
2. The 2015 study focused on the use of a 10 minute DVD with 10 minutes of in person training in how to use the book. This study also showed significant decrease in unnecessary ER and doctors visits and missed days of work for parents.
Final Health Literacy DVD Evaluation Report 2015
Presentation of 2015 Evaluation Study
