Sing-a-Long Sound of Music

A Fundraiser for Literacy

Presented by the PEI Literacy Alliance

Host: Wade Lynch

Time: 7:00 pm

Date: January 31st 2009 (Storm date February 7th 2009)

Place: The Carrefour Theatre

Yes, it’s been around the World and now it’s coming to Charlottetown!

Sing-a-Long Sound of Music is a screening of the classic Julie Andrews film musical in glorious, full-screen technicolor, complete with subtitles so that the whole audience can sing along!

Then of course there is the famous costume competition in which everyone who has come in costume is invited onto the stage to show off their fantastic tailoring skills. Prizes will given to some of the best costumes!

Costume is not mandatory but highly recommended!

Price: $40

Tickets are available at the following locations:

Metro Credit Union - 281 University Avenue

Timothy's World Coffee Shop - 54 University Avenue

PEI Literacy Alliance - 161 St. Peter's Road

Please call (902) 368-3620 if you would like to make arrangements to have tickets mailed to you.

What Are The Links Between Health and Literacy?

Click here to view poster

Charlottetown – well known speaker Eunice Abaga will be in PEI for one day on November 28^th to share her knowledge and experience.

Originally from Kenya, Eunice Abaga now lives and works in Nova Scotia. She is an expert on the links between health and literacy. On November 28^th she will share some experiences people with low-literacy skills have had trying to get health information. She will also explain how health workers can communicate better with patients and what they can do if a patient does not understand the language.

Abaga will present at 9:30 am and 1:30 pm on November 28 at UPEI in room 242 in the Don and Marion McDougall Hall. The morning session is for health workers, seniors and those who work with seniors. In the afternoon her message is aimed at students and instructors in health related programs. Anyone interested is encouraged to attend either one of the two sessions. Admission is free.

The PEI Literacy Alliance, the UPEI Centre for Education Research and the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre (an initiative of Canadian Council on Learning), are sponsors for the day. For more information call the PEI Literacy Alliance at 368-3620.

Literacy and the Election

Well, it's election time. So, here are some interesting readings about literacy and politics:

The Politics of Literacy (ABC Canada)
Debating Literacy - not so much (Literacies Café)
CCCF’s 2008 Federal Election Action Plan and Tool Kit (Canadian Child Care Foundation)

Healthy exchanges

We just finished a needs assessment of health professionals when communicating health information. The final report is now available online.

On May 3rd, The Guardian newspaper ran an article about this research.

Healthy exchanges is a well written article and includes many points of view. I encourage you to read it.

Health Information Needs

In January I posted a press release about our latest health literacy research. The Guardian Newspaper responded to this press release and wrote an article which triggered an online discussion. I thought it may be helpful for those interested to have a summary of the research. Here is the link to the full report and here is the summary.

Summary of Research

Why did we do this research?

Our goal was to identify the needs of people with low literacy skills in getting and using health information. We also wanted to learn ways health information could be communicated better. We will use this research as evidence to make recommendations to policy makers to improve health literacy.

Who did we talk to?

We focused on adult learners with level 2 literacy skills. We chose this group because they met our criteria of having low literacy and being easy to find. We had only 8 weeks to complete our research and this group was easy to access.

What did we do?

We held 4 focus groups across the Island. We talked to a total of 24 people. We asked them 3 key questions:

1. When you need health information where do you go to get it and why?
2. What has been your experience been getting health information?
3. How could health information be easier for you to get and use?

What did we hear?

Participants named doctors and pharmacists as their first source for health information.

Participants named the following issues as determinants of their ability to get, understand and use health information:

1. Time available – how much time they had with a health professional
2. How the information was presented – what form or medium it was in
3. Language used - whether the health information was in plain language or not
4. Support offered - how much help they received in understanding and acting upon health information
5. Accessibility of information – how easy or hard it was to get the health information

Post-secondary grads slipping down the literacy scale

Here's another interesting article, Post-secondary grads slipping down the literacy scale.

This article is about a BC study that compared the literacy skills of University graduates from 1994 and 2003. They suggest that because universities are now more inclusive, their education systems have suffered at the expense of the brightest people. The article goes on to say that Canada now has a narrowed literacy gap, with fewer lower achievers and fewer higher achievers.

What you don't know can kill you

ABC News has some great articles about health literacy. Here is a link to one titled: What you don't know can kill you.

There is a search box at the top of this page. If you type in health literacy you'll find other interesting articles.