Hopkins Hour - Health Literacy in Rehab – It's everyone's business
The October Hopkins Hour focused on Health Literacy in Rehabilitation, aligning with Health Literacy Awareness Month. Held on Wednesday 29 October, the virtual event brought together clinicians, researchers and rehabilitation professionals to explore how health literacy underpins effective communication, patient education and positive health outcomes.
October is Health Literacy Awareness Month, and it's the perfect time to remind ourselves why health literacy is a critical component of health and rehabilitation interventions. Health literacy empowers individuals undergoing rehabilitation to exercise genuine choice and control by enabling them to understand their condition, evaluate different therapeutic approaches, and make informed decisions aligned with their personal goals and values. Clinicians play a vital role in creating a health literacy-responsive environment that meets the information needs of individual clients. By using clear communication, checking for understanding, and adapting education strategies to accommodate diverse literacy levels, clinicians ensure that all clients—regardless of their health literacy capabilities—can be informed partners in their rehabilitation and achieve optimal outcomes. Disability and rehabilitation researchers also contribute by identifying barriers to health literacy, developing evidence-based communication tools and interventions, and evaluating strategies that enhance understanding and engagement across diverse populations.
Dr Delena Amsters provided an update on the Health Literacy in Rehabilitation Project, supported by a Hopkins Centre Seed Grant. She reviewed key principles of health literacy and health literacy responsiveness before being joined by Rhonda Beggs (CNC, Metro North Mental Health) and Hollie Booth (Advanced Physiotherapist, SPOT), who shared practical tools to enhance health literacy and clinical communication.
The session concluded with project clinician participants from the Spinal Outreach Team (SPOT) and Acquired Brain Injury Outreach Service (ABIOS) joining Dr Amsters to reflect on their experiences and discuss key insights gained through the project.
Key takeaways and insights from the Health Literacy in Rehab Project:
- Importance and awareness of health literacy responsiviness - it is everyones business!
- There are small changes that everyone can takeaway and use right now, in striving to understand and do better in health literacy responsiveness.
- Explaining easy to read inclusive material - view video here
- How to write better emails – by defining goal/ key message of email, less is more, design for ease of reading and make key information visible with highlighting, bold and underline formatting.
- How to use MicroSoft Whiteboard - view video here
The one-hour virtual session was delivered via Microsoft Teams Webinar and included closed captions to support accessibility.
Watch the Hopkins Hour event recording below
Click here to access the recording of this event and others on our YouTube Channel.
If you have missed any of the Hopkins Hour online research seminars, please view our gallery of videos on the website: www.hopkinscentre.edu.au/researchvideogallery.
