Doña Ana County Commissioners have accepted over 2.4 million dollars in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. The money will be used to help foster health literacy in the northern region of the county and fund six staff positions.
Doña Ana County’s Health and Human Services Director, Jamie Michael, says increasing the availability of health information is a top program priority.
“How do we make this information accessible and usable for people in different parts of the county? That's where the health literacy piece comes in,” Michael said. “I can have a one-page handout that talks all about the vaccine, but if it's not in your language it's not going to do you much good. Or if it's not meeting your needs and your questions, then it's really not going to motivate you to take any action.”
According to the Center for Health Care Strategies, 36% of American adults have low health literacy. The center finds those individuals experience 6% more hospital visits and are saddled with health care costs four times the rate of people proficient in health literacy.
Keeping Doña Ana County residents from experiencing those burdens is top of mind for Michael, who says establishing clear action steps for the public will be a crucial factor in developing greater health literacy within the county.
“We are really looking at health literacy as the person's ability to find information, to understand the information and then to use that to take action,” Michael said. “Whether that means wearing a mask, whether that means keeping their children at home, sending their children to school, getting vaccinated, we really want the information to lead to action.”
While program efforts will be focused within northern Doña Ana County due to grant requirements, Michael stressed that efforts to improve health literate information will benefit the entire county.
“One of our program goals is to increase the availability, acceptability and use of this information, specifically in populations where it may be more difficult to reach,” Michael said. “We're going to get better at identifying and creating health literate information that will benefit the entire county. We're also really going to focus on support from community health workers and other non-traditional providers in our community.”
Additionally, the program will develop a plan to better support the observance of public health recommendations. Michael says that the county will not only focus on addressing the current pandemic but will work to build a plan for future public health emergencies.
“We're going to collaborate, develop a plan and make recommendations for both this COVID-19, and then we want to look to the future,” Michael said. “There's going to be other public health emergencies. People are always dealing with other health care issues and what we learn here about health literacy can be transitioned into these other types of topics and health care information.”
