Tag Archive for: cultural sensitivity

Empowering Patients: Bridging the Health Literacy Divide for Informed Decision-Making

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Health literacy, as broadly defined by the World Health Organization,  involves the capacity of individuals to “gain access to, understand, and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health for themselves, their families, and their communities.”

The goal of health literacy is not ‘dumbing down’ information; it’s about leveling up and empowering individuals to make informed decisions about their health and medical care.

The State of Health Literacy in the U.S.

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 36% of adults in the United States possess basic or below-basic health literacy. This statistic has profound and multifaceted implications. Firstly, low health literacy contributes to health inequality. Health literacy is a major barrier to accessing health resources and services. This imbalance contributes to disparities in health outcomes, creating a divide that widens existing inequalities.

Secondly, low health literacy affects individuals’ ability to engage in self-care effectively. Almost four out of ten adults struggle to manage their medications or misunderstand essential medical instructions.

Moreover, trust in healthcare providers is closely tied to health literacy. Effective healthcare relies on trust. Low health literacy, however, can undermine trust in healthcare professionals.

In our role as patient advocates, we strive to make health information more accessible, reliable, and easily understandable. Below is a checklist of seven steps you can take to improve your advocacy’s health literacy level.

7-Point Checklist to Improve Health Literacy

1. Accessibility

Healthcare is often filled with jargon and technical language, making it intimidating and confusing. The goal of our advocacy is to minimize health communication barriers so that individuals can make informed decisions no matter what their educational background or medical language experience may be. Embracing accessible language bridges the communication divide, empowering individuals to navigate the complexity of healthcare with confidence.

Actionable Tip: Break complex information down into smaller, digestible chunks to make it easier to understand. Organize information using clear headings and bullet points. If medical terms are unavoidable, provide clear definitions.

You can learn more about accessible content by reading Transforming Your Social Media Presence: 5 Steps to Foster Inclusivity and Advocate for All

2. Clear Navigation

Clear navigation of health content requires logical organization of information. For instance, when presenting information about a medical condition, organize it chronologically from symptoms to treatment options.  Additionally, a navigation system that is clear and easy to use should also work across a wide variety of devices, ensuring a consistent experience across computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Actionable Tip: Make your website or blog easy to navigate. There should be a prominent search bar and a menu with clearly labeled categories or a clickable icon to help people find the information they need when they visit your site.

3. Cultural Sensitivity

When health information reflects an individual’s cultural context, they are more likely to understand and resonate with it.  Health and culture are deeply intertwined, and cultural sensitivity involves recognizing and respecting that health is perceived and pursued differently in different cultures. Trust can be built by respecting these differences, dispelling misconceptions, and bridging gaps.

Actionable Tip: Avoid making assumptions about individuals based on stereotypes or generalizations. If possible, seek feedback from community leaders or representatives to ensure that your communications align with cultural values and sensitivities.

4. Visual Aids

Visual aids, such as charts, graphs, illustrations, and diagrams, enhance health communication by making information more engaging and accessible. Visual learners can grasp health-related concepts more easily through these aids than through text-based information. Visual aids also act as a universal language transcending linguistic barriers and making health information accessible to a wider range of individuals.

Actionable Tip: Ensure visual aids are accessible to everyone.  Provide alternative formats for those with visual impairments, such as text descriptions or audio explanations.

Further Reading: Patient Advocacy: 6 Tips for Making A Visual Impact on Social Media – Patient Empowerment Network (powerfulpatients.org)

5. Inclusive Design

Different learning styles are recognized through inclusive design. Visual aids may be preferred by some, whereas auditory information may be preferred by others. By considering different learning styles and abilities, inclusive design empowers individuals to actively participate in health education, leading to improved health literacy.

Actionable Tip:  Use alt text (short for alternative text) for images. Individuals with visual impairments can understand website images this way. In addition, consider closed captions for videos and readable fonts with sufficient color contrast.

6. Interactive Platforms

Interactive content, such as live video streaming creates an experience that reaches beyond static information dissemination. It empowers individuals to engage with expert insights and creates a sense of community around health-related topics. This approach can contribute significantly to enhancing health literacy.

Actionable Tip: Bring in healthcare professionals to share their expertise on your livestream.   Ask attendees to submit questions in advance or during the live session to encourage active participation. Closed captioning should be available to ensure inclusivity and accessibility.

7. Trustworthy Sources

Users feel more confident in the reliability of health information when credible sources and publication dates are transparently disclosed. Maintain trustworthiness by reviewing and updating health content regularly. This ensures that information remains accurate, aligns with the latest research, and meets evolving standards.

Actionable Tip: To keep users up to date on the currency of content, clearly indicate when it was last reviewed or updated. By regularly updating your content, you demonstrate your commitment to providing accurate and relevant information to your audience and establish long-term trust.

Further Reading: 12 Tips to Create an Educational and Inspiring Roundup of Healthcare News

Conclusion

The patient advocacy community can play a key role in closing the health literacy gap. By championing accessible, trustworthy health information, we contribute to a more equitable society. Our mission is clear: empower patients through knowledge, and transform health outcomes for all.

Empowering Providers to Explain Lung Cancer Biomarker Testing to Patients

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Empowering Providers to Explain Lung Cancer Biomarker Testing to Patients from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo. 

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) clinician Dr. Jhanelle Gray from Moffitt Cancer Center has some knowledge to share. NSCLC expert Dr. Gray discusses her experience in biomarker testing and personalized combination therapeutics.

Watch to learn some of the best practices Dr. Gray has developed in treating and empowering NSCLC patients toward more culturally sensitive and equitable care.

Download Resource Guide

See More from Lung Cancer | Empowering Providers to Empower Patients

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Methods to Improve Lung Cancer Physician-Patient Communication

Transcript:

Dr. Jhanelle Gray:

My name is Dr. Jhanelle Gray, and I’m a clinical investigator focused on helping patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). My research has concentrated on evaluating novel molecular markers and developing cutting-edge, personalized combination therapeutics to improve the outcomes of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Biomarker testing is so important to explain to patients, and I’ve learned some best practices along the way. I think it’s very important that we take the time to think about patients when we’re making decisions, and to be open to the idea that people think differently. We all come from different backgrounds, we have different experiences. I think trying to have empathy, taking a pause, and intentionally being an active listener are very important when a patient is sitting in front of you.

We need to be careful when we use the words manage or managing. We’re not managing the patient, what we’re doing is managing the therapies, we’re helping to manage the symptoms that patients experience. We also want to take time to slow down, look at what is happening in the room as you’re talking, as the patient’s talking to you…

Language is something that is critically important. When you’re delivering negative news, people will remember about 10 percent of what you say. There’s a lot going on, so patience is very important, using words that can resonate and land, and being open to questions are key. Making sure that, again, that you don’t judge and remember that you’re delivering a lot of information. We also must share the news in a culturally sensitive way and understand the dynamics. Again, it’s reading  the room.

Understand that this is an individual conversation. When the next patient comes in, you’re going to tailor the conversation to that individual. When the next patient comes in, you’re going to tailor the conversation to that individual. 

There are also some things to keep in mind about management. Patients do not fail therapies, our therapies fail our patients. And even when you’re talking to patients, you need to let them know, this is one of the things that can occur. While the intention might be to prepare them for what can happen in the future, you may not realize during the conversation that this could come across as blaming. 

Training is one of the ways that you can move this forward and also just pay attention, be thoughtful, and make sure that people feel as comfortable as possible when you need to deliver difficult news. Another time this becomes very important, is when you need to change therapies.

For the patients, they had gotten accustomed to a therapy, they knew how to take care of themselves, how to work with their team, and had familiarity with the side effects. And now you’re going to pivot treatments. To patients, this often feels like starting over from scratch. Thus, I think there are many sensitivities that must be considered, and we need to be thoughtful at those particular times.

I think that all providers should undergo cultural competency training. This can drive impact and help move us to the next level of reaching for that equity and honestly, lessening the inequities in healthcare.

Some things I’ve learned about communicating biomarker results with patients include:

  • Seeing patients as human beings first and the cancer as second.
  • Pause and think about what you’re saying and how you’re saying it.
  • Take your time and don’t rush the appointment.
  • Get to know your patient as a person.

For me, these actions are key to empowering my patients.

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How Can Cultural Competency Play a Role in Your Care?

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How Can Cultural Competency Play a Role in Your Care? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Cultural competency, also known as cultural humility, can help provide better care. Dr. Nicole Rochester and Sasha Tanori discuss barriers to diagnosis and Sasha’s experience as a Mexican American patient in the healthcare system.

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Transcript:

Dr. Nicole Rochester:

Sasha, from your perspective, and you mentioned you’re a Mexican American, you mentioned that there were significant barriers for you in terms of getting a diagnosis, having to leave your community. So I love for you to share more about that, this idea of cultural humility, cultural sensitivity, and how that played out or maybe didn’t in your experiences with the healthcare system.

Sasha Tanori:

Yeah, I live in the lowest poverty line of California, so there’s not very much out there at all in my area. Just to get my diagnosis, like I said, I had to leave out of my community to go get the community…to go get the diagnosis. Sorry. And when I did that, it was…a lot of it had to also do with your…for me personally, it has to do with like generational. My father doesn’t believe in diagnosis, diagnoses, to him, it’s like every time I kept coming to him and complaining about this issue, he was just like, “Oh, you’re exaggerating.” Or it would be like the typical [passive], “You’ve got to go and put some Vicks on it, and you’re fine,” type of response, and I kept bugging him and bugging him, and he didn’t believe me, nobody believed me because it’s just such a…like I said, I live in a…what’s the word I’m thinking of, I’m sorry. I live in a community that they don’t take things like this seriously from Mexicans. If a white girl was to go to the hospital and say, “Hey, I’ve got bruises.” It’s like, “Okay, let’s do testing right away.” But I kept…and it is a lot of my generational, I think, trauma from my parents or from my dad mostly, that I didn’t even believe myself, it’s just like…

I kept putting it on the back burner. I kept thinking, “No, there’s nothing wrong. No, there’s nothing wrong. No, there’s nothing wrong.” And I wish that I would have advocated for myself a lot sooner. I wish that I would have taken my own problems more seriously because I didn’t…I didn’t think anything was wrong either. I just kept ignoring it, because that’s just how my mind was trained from my community, from my parents or my dad mostly, and finally, once I was able to… Once I started getting really, really serious, I still didn’t get the help, I needed it right away, it was now kept pushing it back on, “You need to lose weight,” or “You’re anemic,” or “You have this blood disorder, so take this medicine.’ Like nobody really took anything I was saying serious, because I also didn’t take it serious, my community doesn’t take it serious, my dad doesn’t take it serious, and that all just comes back to being Mexican. That’s just how it is when you’re Mexican, you don’t really take any of the serious issues serious, you go to work, and you take care of your family. And you put yourself on the back burner.

You put yourself last. And it was really hard. Yeah, but now that I’ve been through everything I’ve been through, I’m seriously, so passionate about making sure that people, especially Mexicans realize, “Hey, whatever you’re feeling, whatever you’re going through, whether it’s physical, emotional, mentally, it needs to come first, no matter what.”