Health literacy is like a starfish

Written by Kristine Sørensen on LinkedIn
12 november 2024 published with her permission

We were holding our breath. An ambassador from a local adult learning association was telling his personal story about living a life without letters and how it impacted his health and well-being in a health literacy workshop hosted by Avans and Fontys in the Netherlands, where I was one of the keynote speakers.

His story was so captivating. For more than forty years he kept it a secret to the world that he could not read. His wife had helped him to cope and manage but when she passed away he was in need of help. However, he felt deep shame and stigma. During his whole life he'd never learned to read. His school years had been a nightmare because he was considered lazy or dumb by many of the teachers and bullied by the other kids.

As an adult, he had tried to ask for help but was neglected, so he just kept it for him self and learned to cope in other ways. However, it was still causing a lot of stress in his life. He could not read the medication instructions, he hated filling in forms when seeing his general practitioner, and got overwhelmed when entering hospitals.

After more than forty years he reached out for help - and got it. His life changed for the better. He now reads and helps other to gain the same gift late i life. He is empowered, happy and committed to change the situation for himself and others. What an impact!

The story of the gentleman and his health literacy challenges was a strong reminder that we are simply not always doing as well as we could. Think of all the people and professionals he had met during his whole life who could have helped him much earlier to a better life with less suffering.

Much can be achieved by peer-educators like the health literacy advocate we met. Yet, for a systemic change to happen, we would also need more health literacy champions within the health system and educational system who can help address the root causes of the literacy and health literacy challenges that we still face, even in modern welfare societies.

The health literacy investment and capacity building is always bidirectional - with a focus on the individual as well as the societal response of the health professionals, teachers, civil servants, policymakers, etc. that are put in place to facilitate health and social services for the public good.

Reflecting on the gentleman's lived experience with such a strong impact we were reminded about the story of the girl on the seashore who throws starfishes back into the ocean. Being asked why she is doing that when she would never be able to save them all, she enthusiastically replied: 'it made a difference to that one'.

Nurturing people’s health literacy and help them live a fulfilling life is one of the best gifts you can share with the world.

And yes, indeed. The gentleman's life story highlights that we can help people improve their health literacy - one by one. It is never too late. We can also help our local teams, communities, municipalities, hospitals, schools, and governments - one by one - to make a structural change towards organizational health literacy through daily incremental actions.

Health literacy limits - personal or systemic - should never be a barrier for people to gain a healthy and flourishing life. Besides, we should not be discouraged to act despite the magnitude of the societal health literacy challenge we encounter. The gentleman's story shows how health literacy brings hope and help for people to own their situation and be empowered - on both side of the health literacy equation - among the people served and among professionals serving.

By the way, the story of the starfish is included in my eBook 'Health literacy is like a rainbow'. For more inspiration, you can easily access it here