Reflection week 6

Health literacy is one of the biggest barriers to my Health Promotion work.  To me, Healthy literacy is less about what language they speak but how well the audience can absorb the material.  In the readings we did this week, the authors spoke of key concepts when trying to adjust for health literacy (mother tongue, laymen language, and pictures) i think these are the building blocks that make up a good health campaign.   I personally have created campaign material for various events as well as informational handouts.  Coming from an MPH level, trying to dumb down prescription medication interactions or the biology behind BAC is a little difficult.  Also I constantly have to remind myself that these people dont have the background knowledge i have and obviously would not make the same decisions.

Currently I am working with the VIIDAI program to build an intervention focusing on tick eradication and prevention within a small colonia in Baja Mexico.  Health Literacy is probably one of the biggest factors we face down there.  Being able to explain a virus and how to properly destroy a tick and why are complicated.  The basis for our mission relies on effectively communicating information to a large number of people.  Most of the people in this colonia have only finished the 3rd grade and most are indigenous to central mexico and dont speak traditional spanish.  This presents a whole bag of worms on its own.  Using the advice and techniques from the readings should alleviate some stress on how to address these people.

** When working with our nutritional audience i think health literacy will come into play in the form of how we address the students.  Giving them the information and guidance without being overbearing or hard to understand.  Luckily our target audience is pretty much at the higher education level (some ;) ) it should be too hard.  **