Picture menu a winner of new health literacy award

A MULTILINGUAL picture menu for hospital food and a support group to help women with gynaecological cancer to get information were just two of the six winning projects in the first health literacy awards announced last night.

Health literacy includes skills such as reading, listening and decision-making which help people to use and understand health information in everyday life, according to the chairwoman of the judging panel and academic director of the MBA in health management at UCD, Dr Gerardine Doyle.

Such problems are highlighted in a recent health literacy survey by Lansdowne Marketing which found one in five people could not say which part of the body the "cardiology department" was for and about 60 per cent of respondents did not understand the word "prognosis".

Such issues affected equality of access to health services and people with low literacy levels tended to present to the doctor at a later stage of disease, Ms Doyle explained. There was a shared responsibility of health professionals to communicate with patients, she said.

One such example and one of the award finalists was Heartsplay, a website developed to help children in the cardiac unit of Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin prepare for surgery and help their recovery.

"A child can meet up to 30 different people in hospital and the website shows them the different staff uniforms," said Linda Hogan of Heart Children Ireland, the charity that helped develop the website.

The site also shows child-friendly pictures and explanations of the various equipment and hospital departments a child will encounter. Olivia Fallon, Crumlin's cardiac play therapist, hopes parents and children can use the website at home as well as in hospital.

Veronica Bowden (62) from East Wall in Dublin has had recurring ovarian cancer since she was first diagnosed in 2003 and said going to the ARC cancer support centre had been a life-changing experience.

The centre has been given an award for its psycho-educative group for women with gynaecological cancers, in which women meet to learn from each other, clarify information and talk about their fears.

"It has amazed me how little women know about their bodies," said Ursula Courtney, ARC's director of services. Women were often afraid to ask questions and education levels also interfered with understanding, she added.