The 60-Minute Guide to Health Literacy: A Common Sense Approach to Informed Medical Decision Making

Nearly half of us have already accompanied a relative or friend on their journey to the end of life. Or perhaps you're among the 75 percent of Americans aged 65 and older who are dealing every day with one or more chronic medical conditions. "If only we'd understood, we would have made different cho [...]
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Nearly half of us have already accompanied a relative or friend on their journey to the end of life. Or perhaps you're among the 75 percent of Americans aged 65 and older who are dealing every day with one or more chronic medical conditions. "If only we'd understood, we would have made different choices." That's what people often say after days, months or even years of medical decision making for themselves or for a loved one. A perfect storm is peeking over the horizon. It is the inevitable clash of: 1) America's aging population; 2) the dwindling financial and human resources available to address their needs; and 3) our pervasive lack of health literacy. As the patient in the patient-provider relationship, only you can preserve your right to informed consent and autonomy by taking the steps necessary to achieve health literacy and be a more skilled and effective decision maker. Only you can prepare your trusted loved ones to act as informed substitute decision makers, if the need ever arises. As importantly, only you can achieve the health literacy needed to do the best job possible as an advocate for someone else. What is essential to being an empowered patient, a decisive health care proxy or an engaged health care professional? HEALTH LITERACY. It's recognizing when, how and where to access, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make informed choices. In the pages of THE 60-MINUTE GUIDE TO HEALTH LITERACY, you will find these common sense tools: * Reliable resources for health care information (hyperlinked in the Kindle version) * Step-by-step guides for shared decision making * Vital and effective documentation needed for any health care situation * A HELP Index for quick access to health literate action steps And by downloading the Kindle version to your smartphone, you will have all the resources of THE 60-MINUTE GUIDE TO HEALTH LITERACY at your fingertips. In THE 60-MINUTE GUIDE TO HEALTH LITERACY, Jo Kline shares how to: * Preserve personal values with informed decision making * Assemble the best team of health care providers * Follow recommendations for preventive care * Maintain patient autonomy in a health care emergency * Practice the responsible use of medications * Make respectful and informed end-of-life decisions Preserving the right to informed consent and to receive competent and compassionate health care and end-of-life care is entirely dependent on the decision maker's ongoing level of health literacy. If you don't know it already, you will soon learn that managing health care for yourself or a loved one is a challenging journey. The 60-MINUTE GUIDE TO HEALTH LITERACY is the road map.