Okay, I know that I am being obnoxiously picky, but I do not care for these materials at all.  I do not think that they are very easy to read for a number of reasons. 

 

1.      "Caregiver"? - I wasn't even sure what they meant with this word.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I've never seen that on an elementary school spelling test.  Strangely enough, the Spanish translation is "health professional" which makes it even weirder.

2.      Everything in this pamphlet screams "this is your problem" which I find difficult.

3.      The remarks about culture are just bizarre.  "Hello, my name is Jan and I just want to let you know that my culture is different.  In my culture, we are taught respect for others and so, you - as my "caregiver" need to treat me right."  Yeah.  I can see those words coming out of anyone's mouth....

4.      The grammar is poor.  "That you know about other treatments available to you."  This smacks of "okay, never use compound sentences if you want to write low-literacy materials."  So instead, it's okay to just put fragments in there?

5.      Why ask the caregiver "Is there someone who can help you understand your doctor, nurse, and other caregivers?"  All these questions on the front page are strange.  A more understandable question would be "Is there someone here who can spend some time with me and help me to understand?"

 

I could go on all day....

 

 

 

 

Jan Potter, MSTC

Communications Specialist

Partnership for Health and Accountability

770-249-4549

www.gha.org/pha 

 

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

 

This Email is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2521 and may be legally privileged. The information contained in this Email is intended only for use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, please destroy the email after advising by reply that you erroneously received this.  If applicable, the receipt by anyone other than the designated recipient does not waive the attorney-client privilege, nor will it constitute a waiver of the work-product doctrine. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message and notify us via e-mail to (PHA at gha.org)

 

-----Original Message-----
From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Julie McKinney
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 5:55 PM
To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov
Subject: [HealthLiteracy 1909] The Joint Commission's Health LiteracyCampaign

 

Hi Everyone,

 

Check out these new materials from the Joint Commission. Let the list know what you think of them and the campaign in general!

 

Have a good weekend,

Julie

 

*******************

The Joint Commission is launching a national campaign to help Americans prevent health care errors by promoting health literacy.  Understanding Your Caregivers provides patients questions and answers that will help them better understand the care they receive.  Among the topics are: 

 

- What can you do if you don't understand what your caregiver is saying?

- What can you do if they explain and you still don't understand?

- How do you understand all the instructions related to medicines, or even remember all of the medicines?

 

The campaign is part of their national patient safety Speak Up program which offers downloadable, easy-to-read brochures on issues such as preventing medication mistakes, avoiding wrong site surgery, and recovering after leaving the hospital.

 

To download Understanding Your Caregivers brochures, visit http://www.jointcommission.org/PatientSafety/SpeakUp/sp_understanding.htm

 

To download Speak Up brochures, visit http://www.jointcommission.org/PatientSafety/SpeakUp/

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

 

Julie McKinney

Health Literacy List Moderator

World Education

jmckinney at worlded.org

----------------------------------------------------

National Institute for Literacy

Health and Literacy mailing list

HealthLiteracy at nifl.gov

To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy

Email delivered to jpotter at gha.org

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