This document discusses a training for providers on health literacy and using a book called "What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick" to help reduce unnecessary ER visits. It describes how giving parents this easy-to-read book and training them to use it for minor illnesses reduced ER visits by over 50% and saved $550 per family. The book covers over 50 common childhood health issues with questions on symptoms, home care, and when to call a doctor. Distributing and introducing the book to parents was shown to increase its use as a resource.

1. “What to Do When Your Child
Gets Sick” Training
A Training for Providers Working with
Parents of Young Children

2. Overview
What is Literacy?
What is Health Literacy?
Why is it Important?
What Can We Do About it?

3. What is literacy?
“An individual’s ability to read, write, and speak in
English and compute and solve problems, at levels
of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in
the family of the individual, and in society.”
1998 Adult Education and Family Literacy Act

4. Learner’s Story

5. What is Literacy?
What are some of the things that you should be
able to do if you are literate?
 Use computers
 Communicate with a team member on the job
 Read a newspaper
 Make informed political decisions
 Know where to get outside help

6. Literacy Statistics
Prison inmates who do not have a high
school diploma (NCFL, 2002)
Adults on Public Assistance who do not
have a high school diploma or GED
(National Institute for Literacy)
Over 1.5 million adults in Wisconsin
(nearly 39%) qualify for literacy services
(National Institute for Literacy, 1998)
46 %
50 %
1.5million

7. What Does it Feel Like?
n.” said B y. “W r
“Comeo ets ehav di cku i o n.
eto pth sc
eqon’ anot fqodc
W thave her orn.”
cano

8. What people feel about their limited
reading ability
 Ashamed, embarrassed
 Less of a person
 Stupid, anxious, angry
 “Something is wrong with me.”

9. The Big Secret
% of low literate adults who have not told their:
Children 52%
Friends 62%
Spouse 68%
Health care providers 75%
Co-workers 85%

10. Identifying “Red Flags”
“I forgot my glasses. I’ll read this when I get
home.”
“Let me bring this home so I can discuss it with my
spouse.”
“I don’t have time to wait today.”
“I don’t feel well.”

11. Red Flags Often Misjudged
• Incomplete forms
• Frequently missed
appointments
• Lack of follow-through

12. What is Health Literacy?
“The degree to which individuals have the
capacity to obtain, process, and understand
basic information and services needed to make
appropriate decisions regarding their health.”
- Institute of Medicine, 2004

13. Literacy vs Health Literacy
Almost everyone will have difficulty with
health literacy at some point.
• Times of stress
• Role of medications
Much harder for those that do not:
• Read very well; or
• Speak English as their primary language.

14. 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy -
Health Literacy
12%14%
22%
53%

15. What is “Proficient”? (12%)
Calculate an
employee’s share
of health insurance
costs for a year,
using a table

16. What is “Intermediate”? (53%)
Determine what time to take
a prescription medication
• based on information on the
prescription drug label that relates
the timing of medication to eating.

17. What is “Basic”? (22%)
Give two reasons someone
should get screened for a
disease even if they have no
symptoms
• based on information from a clearly
written pamphlet

18. What is “Below Basic”? (14%)
Circle the date of a
medical appointment
on a hospital
appointment slip

19. REAL PEOPLE WITH REAL PROBLEMS

20. The Impact on Health
Poorer health knowledge
Poorer health status
Higher mortality
More hospitalizations
Higher health care costs

21. Money Matters
$106-$238 billion are lost every
year on health care costs because
of poor communication between
patients and providers.
In Wisconsin: $3.4-7.6 billion
annually
Vernon, J. et al, University of Connecticut, Oct. 2007

22. What Can You Do?
Ask Questions
22

23. Questions Are the
Answer

24. Good Questions for Good Health
Diagnosis Treatment Context
What Is My
Main
Problem?
What Do I
Need to Do?
Why is it
Important for
Me to Do
This?

25. “What to Do When Your Child Gets
Sick”
Part of a Series
Available in:
• English
• Spanish
• Vietnamese
• Korean
• Chinese

26. “What to Do When Your Child Gets
Sick”
A recent study showed that giving parents on
Medicaid a copy of the easy to read book, What
To Do When Your Child Gets Sick, and training
them how to use it at home to care for their
child's minor ailments and injuries, reduced
hospital ER visits by more than 50% and saved
more than $550 per family annually.

27. Project Results
438 surveys
• 695 children
• 15 Head Start Centers
91 % of parents would use the book again
53% of parents used the book instead of calling or visiting
the hospital or clinic

28. What is in the book?
covers the management of more than 50 common childhood
illnesses, injuries, and health problems
written in easy-to-read language for parents and caregivers of
children from birth to 8 years of age

29. What is in the book?
for each condition, the following questions are answered:
• What is it?
• What do I see?
• What can I do at home?
• When do I call the doctor or nurse?
• What else should I know about it?

30. The Project
Hand out books to your parents
Do a brief introduction of the book
Do a brief follow up survey 3 months later
• Incentive -

31. Distribution
Survey revealed that those who were introduced to the
book were more likely to use it.
What do you do with a book that you are given?
Why would you go back to that book?
What can we do to make it a “Go To” resource?

32. Who Will Answer My Questions?
Margarete@wisconsinliteracy.org
Nancy.Wheeler@indianheadcaa.org
http: //www.wisconsinliteracy.org
http: //www.healthliteracywisconsin.org
http://www.indianheadcaa.org