“What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick” Training

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 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrdHkXgDE0k

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 46 % 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) • Adults in Wisconsin (nearly 39%) that qualify for literacy services (National Institute for Literacy, 1998) 50 % 1.5million

7. What does it feel like? n.” said B y. “W r “Comeoetsehavdickui o n. etopth sc eqon’ anotfqodc 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 • Percent 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 understandbasic information and services needed tomake appropriate decisionsregarding 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 14% 12% 22% 53%

15. What is “Proficient”? (12%) • Would be able to calculate an employee’s share of health insurance costs for a year, using a table

16. What is “Intermediate”? (53%) • Would struggle with being able to determine what time to take a prescription medication. • Time is based on information on the prescription drug label that relates the timing of medication to eating.

17. What is “Basic”? (22%) • Would struggle with being able to 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%) • Would not be able to locate and circle the date of a medical appointment on a hospital appointment slip

19. Real people with real problems http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgTuD7l7LG8

20. The impact on health • Poorer health knowledge • Poorer health status • Higher death rates • More hospitalizations • Higher health care costs

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

22. What can you do? As a patient, you should: Ask Questions

23. “Questions Are the Answer” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PudB0uYnFU

24. “Good Questions for Good Health” What Is my main problem? What do I need to do? Why is it important for me to do this? Diagnosis Treatment Context

25. You can offer a great resource:“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” • Multiple independent studies have shown that giving parents 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 led to: • 57-61% reduction in ER Visits • 39-56% decrease in doctors/clinic visits • 43-60% fewer missed school days by children due to illness or injury • 41-47% less work days missed by parents due to child's illness

27. “What To Do When Your Child Gets Sick” • One study that included parents on Medicaid also showed that the reduced hospital ER visits saved more than $550 per family annually.

28. In Wisconsin • Recent projects with Head Starts and Childcare Providers in Northwest WI • 643 parents • 1090 children • 71% felt that the book helped them deal with a health care problem at home instead of calling a hospital or clinic • 62% felt that the book helped them deal with a problem at home instead of going to the Emergency Room (ER) or Urgent Care

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

30. 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?

31. Distribution • Surveys revealed that those who were introduced to the book and not just handed it, 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 you do to make it a “Go To” resource?

32. After the book has been given to parents with a short introduction • After the parents have had a chance to use the book (2-3 months after distribution), conduct the survey located online https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WhatToDoSurvey.

33. Who will answer my questions? • Margarete Cook • Margarete@wisconsinliteracy.org • Allison Machtan • machtan.allison@securityhealth.org • http: //www.healthliteracywisconsin.org