Missed our first tour? Join us for a 30-minute live walk-through of the new IHA Health Literacy Solutions Center on Zoom. Bring your questions.

What we'll cover

• Logging in: How to set your new password with the email you used before

• A quick tour: The Library, Discussions, Connect by Region, the member directories and your profile

• Your questions: Time to ask anything about the new site

Can't make it? Watch the recording in Webinar Archives afterward.

The new IHA Health Literacy Solutions Center is live, and we'd love to show you around. Join us for a 30-minute live tour on Zoom. Bring your questions.

What we'll cover

• Logging in: How to set your new password with the email you used before

• A quick tour: The Library, Discussions, Connect by Region, the member directories and your profile

• Your questions: Time to ask anything about the new site

Can't make this one? Join our next drop-in session, or watch the recording in Webinar Archives afterward.

Medi-Cal-enrolled pregnant people receiving care from Claris Health, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles County, with one or more risk factors for gestational diabetes.

Research Team

Emily Sylvester is the founder and CEO of Nurture Talk. Alicia Miller represents Claris Health.

Findings

Findings will be added here when they become available.

Residents with diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease living in Miami Rescue Mission residential facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties in Florida.

Findings

Findings will be added here when they become available.

This pilot study aims to increase childhood blood lead level (BLL) screening in Coffeyville, Kansas, an area with high lead exposure risk and low testing rates. The team will implement a health literacy-informed intervention at a federally qualified health center (FQHC), co-developed with community and clinical partners.

Anticipated Impact

This is the first study to explicitly test a health literacy-embedded approach to improving childhood blood lead screening in a rural clinical setting. Because the materials and workflows are co-developed with an FQHC, the local health department and community partners, they could be replicated in similar communities.

Findings

Findings will be added here when they become available.

This study aims to establish a national educational research agenda to increase the use of clear communication best practices among U.S. physicians. The team will convene a group of experts and use a structured consensus-building process to set research priorities.

Anticipated Impact

Little is known about how to effectively train physicians in clear communication with patients, caregivers and the public. This research will yield short-, medium- and long-term impacts on medical and other health professional training programs and policies, with downstream benefits for patients, caregivers and communities.

Findings

Findings will be added here when they become available.

Share Your Aha! Moment

We’re collecting short stories and videos from members to show why health literacy matters. Your moment can be big or small. What matters is that it changed how you think about health communication.

• Record a short video: One to two minutes on your phone is perfect. Tell us what happened and what you learned.

• Or write it down: A few sentences are enough.

• Post it here: Select Share Your Story or Video on this page to add your story.

Prefer to share privately? Members: message the IHA team. Not a member yet? Email staff@healthliteracysolutions.org.

Need Inspiration?

• The first time you truly understood a diagnosis or treatment

• A time you helped a loved one navigate care

• A moment when a clear explanation changed someone’s decision

• When you realized a patient or client didn’t understand what you said

In this edition of Health Literacy Voices, certified child life specialist Clare Kelley shares how meeting patients where they are, even the youngest ones, can turn confusion into confidence and transform health care communication.

Can You Share a Time When Health Information Was Clear—or Confusing—for You or Someone Close to You?

As a child life specialist, sharing and clarifying health information with kids was a big part of my job. I once met a 7-year-old patient who had just been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. When the doctor arrived in his room, this new patient abandoned his racecars and listened intently to the doctor from his mom’s lap. As the doctor explained that the patient would need a port placed in his chest for treatment, the patient began to cry. He had heard of ports. Ports were spots where computers were plugged in! Was he going to be plugged into a computer until his cancer went away? I told him I completely understood why he would think that, and explained to him what a port-a-cath looked like and what it did. We talked about how it was different from a computer port and how it would “plug in” to his chemo bags in a way, but always be unplugged after he got the medicine he needed. I showed him a model port and he asked many questions. By the time he left the clinic, he wanted to take the model port home with him to show his siblings.

Patients can be empowered by their ability to move from confusion to clarity.

My takeaway from this and several interactions like it is this: Health information will sometimes be unclear at first, even if only for a moment—and that’s okay! It’s full of unfamiliar words and complex systems. That’s the nature of it. But patients can be empowered by their ability to move from confusion to clarity.

What Can Professionals Learn About the Risks When Health Information Isn’t Clear?

In the health literacy world, we talk a lot about the physical risks that confusing health communication can bring. In my experience working with patients, I’ve found there are psychological and emotional risks as well. Being a patient is a vulnerable and overwhelming experience—the stakes are high, the pain can be intense, and there is a lot of information thrown at you. When a patient doesn’t understand their care, that sense of vulnerability and overwhelm grows even larger. And the anxiety and stress of that can cause health issues of their own! Clear health information supports a patient’s mental and physical health.

What Qualities Do You Notice in People Who Explain Health Information Well?

1. They ask questions and listen first to gauge understanding.

2. They speak plainly, but they don’t talk down.

3. They’re not afraid to sound casual.

What Advice Would You Give Professionals About Sharing Health Information More Clearly or Respectfully?

To professionals who work with pediatric patients, I want to emphasize the value of patient education for children, even very young children. Patients as young as 2 years old are capable of understanding simple things about their bodies, diagnoses, and treatments. And they benefit from being talked to about these things! They deserve to know what’s happening and take part in their care to whatever extent they are able. This can be as simple as preparing a toddler for a vaccine by telling them that they are going to feel a cold wet wipe, a quick poke, and then get to pick a bandage. The best way to make sure that your pediatric patients get the health information they need at a developmentally appropriate level is to consult a certified child life specialist or a health literacy specialist with a background in pediatrics.

What Gives You Hope That Communication in Health Care and Public Health Can Get Better?

Clear health communication has never been more important. Right now, high-ranking public officials are spreading and amplifying grave health misinformation. Public health initiatives are losing funding left and right. And our collective digital literacy skills have not caught up with the AI-powered web—we are vulnerable to all sorts of fake news and hallucinations. It’s easy to feel discouraged. But I do have hope. At the end of the day, health communication is about truth-telling, and truth always comes to light. I don’t think it will be too long before there is a huge push for more clear health communication. We need it to save lives.

After starting my health literacy career in the hospital setting, I recently launched my own health literacy and patient education business. And what I’ve learned from talking to clients and colleagues is that there are so many amazing, passionate professionals working on vital health literacy initiatives. They give me hope: the people who in the bleakest times are not faltering, but pushing harder to make sure people everywhere are well informed about their health.

About the Author

Clare Kelley, MS, HLS, CCLS, is a certified child life specialist and health literacy specialist with a background in patient education, plain language writing and accessible content design. She runs a health literacy practice, Plain Health with Clare, where she creates engaging, audience-centered resources that help make complex health information easier to understand. She also serves as the chair of the U.S. Health Literacy Association’s marketing and communications task force.

Join the Conversation

Has a moment of confusion ever turned into clarity for you or a patient? Share your story in the comments below.

College students Aditya Tummala and Beier Nelson share their experiences growing up in immigrant households with language barriers, and how those experiences inspired them to create the Health Fluency Project (HFP).

Join the Conversation

Have you helped a family member navigate health care in another language? Share your experience in the comments below.

Patient partner and health entrepreneur Kathy Kastner shares how one prenatal class turned confidence into confusion when jargon took over. That moment began her journey in health literacy. Kathy shows how words shape care, why pace and plain language matter and how respect builds trust.

Join the Conversation

Has jargon ever gotten in the way of your care or a loved one’s? Share it in the comments below.