At 07:48 AM 1/17/2008, you wrote:

>A number of potential problems for consumers with limited verbal and/or 

>reading skills immediately come to mind, such as:

>

>1) conversion of prescriptions without a doctor's consent - or with 

>consent based on difficult to understand conversion forms

>

>2) enrollment in other programs without informed consent

>

>...and on and on.

>


Hi Paul,

You make a good point for programs tied to something like a pharmacy.  I 
can't help but wonder that even with the partnership with a nonprofit - 
unless it's mission involves health literacy specifically - there might not 
be those concerns. When going to people for assistance with my son who has 
disabilities, I find that the "good old boy network" is still in place and 
will wonder in the midst of it all if we're receiving the full picture. 
Isn't it possible that the same concerns could continue even with a 
nonprofit agency there to assist?

I am wondering if it's not the training and HL policy and programs that are 
the concern rather than the collaboration piece? Though involving community 
organizations is *always* a good thing to do to get community support for a 
program, I"m just not sure that in and of itself it provides the assurances 
you are looking for.

What if the company has adopted a health literacy policy, trained staff, 
and has a resource professional available to them and the customers?

If the quality piece of the HL programming is built into the program, it 
seems like a smart marketing approach.

I guess the question is, what is the least dangerous assumption?

Respectfully,
Joan Medlen, RD, LD
Project Director, Creating Solutions
Clinical Advisor for Health Literacy, Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Program