HWE 498 Ashford University Health Literacy Paper

Health Literacy

The concept of health literacy is crucial to understand for any healthcare professional. In the future, you will be exposed to individuals from various cultures and backgrounds. Your clients may come from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds with varying skills and abilities pertaining to communication, reading, and writing. Their ability to understand and process health-related information could certainly impact their decisions and behaviors regarding chronic disease prevention and treatment interventions. In addition, your ability level to relay appropriate health-related information can directly affect the clients’ adherence to a health and wellness plan.

After familiarizing yourself with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Quick Guide to Health Literacy (Links to an external site.), address the subsequent elements:

• Forecast how health literacy will be relevant in your future professional role.
• Assess possible challenges that may arise relating to health literacy (i.e. with colleagues, adolescent and adult clients, and the community).
• Create three strategies on how these challenges could be overcome.