Beyond ensuring access to insurance, the new legislation incorporates an expansive view of health and well being–or at least a view more expansive than we’re used to. It acknowledges the obvious: that maintaining healthy communities means more than providing medical care for individuals, however crucial that step. (more)

For the first time in a long while, we’ve got the President and Congress on the public health bandwagon. But what about the American public? Tuller mentions a 2001 survey in which 80% of Americans did not think that public health had touched their lives in any way. He posits that this is because when public health is working as it should, it’s largely invisible.

The Fun Theory has also given awards to the ideas and inventions that help prove the fun theory – that fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. We love the award entries like the Pinball Exercise Machine and Fighting Germs with Fun for showing us how a little fun can be applied to serious problems like obesity and flu control – and for reminding us that healthy behaviors can be fun, too.

Pinball Exercise Machine

Fighting Germs with Fun

So how do we help people with limited health literacy skills find and use health information on the Web? And how do we make Web sites easier to use for the millions of older adults who are going online for health information for the first time?

For answers to these questions and more, the CommunicateHealth team enthusiastically recommends this research-based guide to writing and designing user-friendly health Web sites from the US Department of Health and Human Services. (Yeah, okay – we helped write it.)

The guide is full of examples, tips, and tested strategies to help you write and design health Web sites that are easier for your Web users to understand. The 6 strategies described in the guide are:

1. Learn about your users and their goals.
2. Write actionable content.
3. Display content clearly on the page.
4. Organize content and simplify navigation.
5. Engage users with interactive content.
6. Evaluate and revise your site.

Are you using these strategies to improve your organization’s Web site? If not, let us know — we can help!

The action plan contains seven goals, each with specific strategies for different sectors of the health system, such as payers, the media, government agencies, and health care professionals, to improve health literacy. These goals emphasize the importance of creating health and safety information that is accurate, accessible, and actionable. (Read the full press release from HHS.)

“We each have a role to play in improving health literacy,” notes CommunicateHealth co-founder Stacy Robison, who served as a contributing editor of the National Action Plan. “Improving the way public health professionals and the media communicate health information will go a long way toward achieving our goal of a health literate society.”

Listen to an interview with the lead editor of the National Action Plan, Dr. Cynthia Baur, to learn how individuals and organizations can use the action plan.

Photo by heacphotos.

Check out “The Language of Care” in Newsweek (June 9, 2010).

My health-insurance company has a nice Spanish-language Web site full of information about diet, exercise, and healthy living, but the terms of the policy are in English—and it’s this fine print that scares me.

Randy Nieves Ruiz talks about how language is a barrier to accessing health care in the United States – in addition to the cultural, legal, and economic challenges many Latinos face in this country.

Rep. Bruce Braley, who introduced the bill, said:

“There is no reason why the federal government can’t write these forms and other public documents in a way we can all understand. Writing government documents in plain language will increase government accountability and will save Americans time and money.”

Amen.

The Plain Writing Act gives agencies one year to begin to use clear, concise, well-organized writing in public documents. Agencies can meet this requirement by following the Federal Plain Language Guidelines.

Rep. Braley is also credited with getting plain language into the Health Care Reform bill. The legislation requires health plans to make certain information available in plain language, defined as “language that the intended audience, including individuals with limited English proficiency, can readily understand and use because that language is concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices of plain language writing.”

Next Steps:
Read the full text of the Plain Writing Act.
Join CommunicateHealth in advocating for the passage of the companion bill in the Senate. Contact your Senators and urge them to pass S 574.

CommunicateHealth co-founder Stacy Robison was recently featured on Health Literacy Out Loud, a podcast series produced by health literacy advocate Helen Osborne. Stacy chats with Helen about CommunicateHealth’s work developing the Quick Guide to Healthy Living, part of the award-winning healthfinder.gov Web site from the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

In the podcast, Stacy shares strategies for designing online health information for people with limited literacy skills and limited experience using the Web. The podcast also addresses the challenges of creating engaging, actionable health promotion content. Listen to Creating Usable, Useful Health Web sites for Readers at All Levels and share your comments.

Click the thumbnail to see a full scan of the letter, or read the text of the advance letter from the Census Bureau.

The 2010 Census advance letter represents an impressive effort on the part of the U.S. Census Bureau to use plain language in their public communications. The letter is mailed to all households a few days before they received the census form. Here are a few of the plain language techniques used in the letter:

• Uses the active voice: “When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly.”
• Addresses readers directly using pronouns: “About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail.”
• Uses short paragraphs. The body of the letter is two short paragraphs. The first is just two sentences long. This helps readers easily scan for the most important information, and leaves plenty of white space on the page.
• Covers only one topic in each paragraph. The first paragraph tells readers what action to take. The second paragraph explains the benefits of taking action.

And for the first time in U.S. census history, the Census Bureau sent a bilingual advance letter and form to the over 13 million households in areas where Spanish is predominantly spoken at home.  It’s too soon to tell, but we think the plain language letter could boost census mail-back rates and save the government money.

Recipients of the ClearMark Award for Best Public Sector Web site Xanthi Scrimgeour & Stacy Robison with Sandra Hilfiker & Linda Harris from the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

The Quick Guide to Healthy Living, part of healthfinder.gov, captured the 2010 ClearMark Award for the best plain language public sector Web site.

“This site hits the mark with its simple-to-use and easy-to-understand format. It provides people at all levels of literacy with relevant health-care information,” judges said. (Washington Post, April 30, 2010)

The ClearMark Awards, sponsored by the Center for Plain Language, were presented at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on April 29, 2010.

“We were thrilled to award CommunicateHealth in collaboration with the Office of Disease Prevention and and Health Promotion, one of our first national ClearMark Awards,” said Annetta Cheek, Chair, Board of Directors of the Center for Plain Language. “They were a strong contender out of a very competitive field of 160 submissions.”

The Quick Guide to Healthy Living is managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.  The Web site includes plain language health information on over 60 health and wellness topics. Extensive usability testing was conducted before and after launching the Quick Guide. CommunicateHealth oversees content development for the site.

A national panel of plain language experts served as judges for the ClearMark Awards. For more information or instructions on how to submit a 2011 ClearMark nomination, go to www.centerforplainlanguage.org.