Community activation to enhance patient provider communication

In the Institute of Medicine Report – A Prescription to End Confusion – the authors write ”to begin reducing the negative effects of limited health literacy, health service providers and people in the community must be knowledgeable, aware, and responsive to the health literacy of patients and consumers”. To address this recommendation, the SEPA-READS project developed partnerships with several facilities to institute a patient information/peer activation program. Peer educators were trained in Ask Me 3TM, through a program designed to promote communication between health care providers and patients in order to improve health outcomes, and problem solving scenarios and strategies. Senior centers and community organizations played a key role in this initiative by identifying adults aged 50 and over who would be good candidates to: represent their peers by becoming members of the Community Advisory Group, and participate in a peer activation train-the-trainer program, and then train their peers in these techniques. These peer educators conducted patient activation programs in Senior Centers, Senior Housing, ESL classes, and other community venues.