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Health, HealthCetera, Prevention & Treatment

Bringing health literacy home for the holidays

Krisit Westphaln & Eileen Fry-Bowers

Data from the US Department of Health and Human Services National Assessment of Adult Literacy estimates that approximately 77 million Americans are currently at risk for low health literacy.

From a refugee family who arrives to a health care visit with minimal English speaking skills to an English speaking family attempting to understand a multi-medication asthma regimen for a loved one, navigating the jargon and technology within the health care system can be both challenging and frustrating for families.

A lacking of health literacy, or understanding about one’s health, can lead to potentially devastating effects including but not limited to poor access to health care, prolonged uncomfortable symptoms, delayed diagnoses, and unanticipated hospital readmissions. Additionally, low health literacy affects people of all ages and all stages of life.

When was the last time that you sat down with your loved ones and talked about health literacy, literally? Skills such as reading a pamphlet or calculating a medication dose aren’t always easy. Feelings such as fear or sadness can also impact health care actions and decisions. Communication and comprehension represent key components in promoting health and wellness.

Tune into Healthcetera Radio on Thursday, November 24th as Senior Fellow Kristi Westphaln interviews health literacy scholar and health policy expert, Dr. Eileen Fry-Bowers. Among her many accomplishments, Dr. Fry-Bowers holds a degree in law from Whittier Law School, a PhD from the UCLA School of Nursing, and she currently serves as faculty at the Hahn school of Nursing and Health Science at the University of San Diego.

The holidays are right around the corner. Take a few minutes to learn how you can bring tidings of health literacy to your friends and family. Dr. Fry-Bowers demystifies health literacy as she defines it, provides strategies for enhancing health literacy, and explains the important Ask Me 3 questions that you should ask your health care provider at every check up.

Give the gift of health this year by boosting your family health literacy and tune into Healthcetera radio.

You can listen to the interview here on iTunes

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November 23, 2016

author: Kristi Westphaln

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[caption id="attachment_11873" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Krisit Westphaln &

HealthCetera

Your Last Two Days of Life

Conversations around death and dying might sound morbid. However, no one lives forever. So if you knew you were dying, what type of care would you want to receive in your final days? Each year, thousands of individuals who have a life-limiting illness consider that question and choose hospice, a specialized home care service that offers support during the dying process. Conversely, so many terminally ill individuals do not opt for hospice. Is hospice care dismissed or delayed because we live in a death-denying society and entry into hospice requires the acceptance of death?

For those who are ready to accept the finality of their disease, hospice providers are available to assist patients with attaining the best quality of life throughout the dying process. Of course, individuals who are dying should be able to die with dignity and free from pain. But do all individuals receive high quality care throughout the entire length of service? During the last two days of life when organs start to fail and functional disabilities increase, some individuals and their families might not receive the hospice support they need.

One national study found that individuals who either lived in a rural area, were African American/Black or resided in a nursing home, were less likely to receive a visit during the last two days of life. What should you expect from hospice and what can you do to ensure that you or your loved one receives the high quality service that is so critical during the last two days of life? Dr. Joan Teno, a physician at the Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence and the author of Examining Variations by Professional Staff in the Last 2 Days of Life, joins me on Healthstyles to respond to those critical questions and provide valuable patient advocacy resources.

Tune in to WBAI or listen to the interview with Dr. Joan Teno by clicking the link below.

the-last-two-days-of-life

November 21, 2016

author: Editorial Staff

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Conversations around death and dying might sound

Affordable Care Act, Health, Health Equity, HealthCetera, Medicare & Medicaid, Nursing, Policy, Radio/Podcast

HealthCetera: Elections and Violence in the Congo

The election of Donald Trump and the Republican dominance in both houses of Congress and state governorships and legislatures and possibly a majority of the Supreme Court means that major changes are coming that will affect the health and health care of people.

Not the least of these is an escalation in harassment and bullying against people of color, women, LGBTs, and Muslims. This week on HealthCetera radio, Senior Fellow and radio co-producer Kenya Beard, RN, EdD, joins producer and moderator Diana Mason, PhD, RN, FAAN, in discussing implicit and explicit bias and its effects on the health and well-being of people and what people can do to create safe places for those being bullied.

The Safety Pin Brigade provides a visual symbol of safety and willingness to intercede to stop the bullying. People simply attach a safety pin to their coats or jackets or blouses to send the message to those who don’t feel safe that the person is a safe harbor. Drs. Beard and Mason also discuss a strategy to stop the bullying and harassment that was developed specifically for Islamaphobic attacks but is relevant to all situations of bullying. It includes calmly sitting down with or standing next to the person being bullied and initiating a conversation with them about something other than the incident of bullying. The intervening person ignores the bully and avoids eye contact with the bully. Instead, the person maintains eye contact with the person being bullied and continues to talk calmly with them. The expectation is that the bully will eventually leave, after which the person should escort the person being bullied to a safe place.

They also discuss expected federal policy changes that include crippling the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare in ways that will see the nation returning to almost 50 million uninsured people; privatization of Medicare; scaling back Medicaid by turning it into a block grant to states; failing to reauthorize the Child Health Insurance Program that has been responsible for ensuring that poor children have health insurance coverage even if their parents do not; removing protections against environmental degradation, including from climate change; and attempting to reverse Roe v. Wade and other changes to restrict women’s reproductive rights and health. You can listen to this interview here in two parts:

The program ends with a brief interview with Elie Kindisi Kabulululu, a nurse and deputry president of the Democratic Republic of Congo Nurses Association and Coordinator of an NGO working in the challenging and insecure circulstances of the East Congo at Beni North Kivu. Last week, rebels based in Uganda attached a village and health center 30 kilometers from Mr. Kabulululu’s village. He shares what happened and the priority of finding ways to help the roaming children who are homeless after the death of their parents. You can listen to this interview here:

So tune in on Thursday, November 17, 2016, at 1:00 to WBAI, 99.5FM in New York City or streaming online at www.wbai.org.

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Bringing health literacy home for the holidays

Your Last Two Days of Life

HealthCetera: Elections and Violence in the Congo

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