Adult Literacy and Health. Reading and Writing as Keeping-Well Practices. Research into Practice Series No. 5.

This booklet, which was developed for adult literacy educators in Australia, summarizes selected research on health practices, communication, and literacy and outlines some issues that adult literacy teachers might consider in their work. The booklet begins with three anecdotes previewing the practical everyday challenges that literacy poses for medical practitioners and the people to whom they provide services. Examined next is the problem of health promotion and providing health services and information to people with limited literacy capabilities. A research project in which health workers and patients in low socioeconomic and high migrant areas are being interviewed about medical practices and literacy is discussed, and ways of connecting literacy, health, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status are presented. Concluding the booklet are eight strategies that literacy instructors can use to help health workers and their clients communicate better. Among the strategies suggested are the following: use health materials in teaching literacy; explore the readability of health materials with students; engage literacy students in a discussion of the problems they present to health providers; and spell out ways clients can request and expect guidelines on accessing available health literacy materials. The booklet contains 16 references. (MN)