What is even more confusing was that the article claimed to be about social marketing but used a terminology which , it strikes me, totally hides and meaning.
To be fair it really does not matter what sort of language people when they are selling thing like cell phones or online newspapers. But when it comes to health it really really does matter.
Which is why I was delighted to discover that this month is Health Literacy Month. Created by Ms Helen Osborne in 1999 who says “Health Literacy Month is a time for organizations and individuals to promote the importance of understandable health information.”
Ms Osborne continues “The theme for Health Literacy Month 2014 is “Be a Health Literacy Hero.” It’s about taking action and finding ways to improve health communication. Health Literacy Heroes are individuals, teams, or organizations who not only identify health literacy problems but also act to solve them. You can help by recognizing and cheering on those you consider as Health Literacy Heroes. Click here for more information plus tools to help.”
As regular readers of this blog know health information and medical education is one of the big areas covered by this blog. And I often state how disappointed I am with massively funded organisations and their inability to produce anything a normal person can understand. Or they demonstrate a total lack of understanding of how digital information can be shared.
So part of the point of this blog is a cry from the heart asking people who write stuff about health to write so we can understand it. You are not writing for automatons with MBAs but for people like me.
Yo find out more about Health Literacy Month please check out their website here.
If you do have any suggestions for Health Literacy Heroes please share them in the comments section below and I will take sure that Ms Osborne sees them!
Thanks in advance!