ABC Health Matters was created in 2016 as a way of empowering Canadians to manage their health more effectively and to increase their confidence in discussing health issues with family, friends and health care providers. With the support of AbbVie Corporation, the program has been running in Ontario in highly diversified neighbourhoods since inception.
Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre (DPNCHC), located in a heavily Spanish & Portuguese speaking area, has delivered the ABC Health Matters program. They use advocacy, health education, and personal skills development to increase the ability of vulnerable populations to positively affect their own health outcomes. This year, they have delivered two ABC Health Matters workshops to two very different groups. The first workshop was open to everyone and attended primarily by DPNCHC regulars, many of whom are new to Canada and have low literacy. The second workshop was open to a group of English-speaking parents with young children. Most of these parents were at a higher literacy level than the first group.
Both groups responded well to the program and agreed that the information was important and useful. DPNCHC plans to offer the program again in the fall, but this time they plan to break it up into two sessions. Dividing the program into two parts is easily done. As with all ABC Life Literacy workshops, ABC Health Matters is created to be flexible and is highly adaptable so that learning centres can utilize the resource materials in a way that works most effectively for their clients. Full workbooks can be downloaded from ABCHealthMatters.ca, as well as individual information and activity sheets. New downloadable resources will be added to the website this September.
Gabrielle Langlois, Community Development and Heath Promoter for DPNCHC, delivered the ABC Health Matters program to both groups and lauded the program workbook saying, “The staff and I really love the format of the workbook because it is very personal. The very first question asks them directly how they are feeling. It not only asks what they are feeling but how their symptoms are impacting their life. Our clients may not be able to articulate their symptoms clearly but teaching them to include the impact of how they are feeling is a huge step towards more effective communication with their doctor. In fact,” she continued, “I would love to run the workshop for the community at large because there is such a big need for this material.”
Langlois went on to lament the fact that many people have difficulty retaining the information provided to them by their doctors, pharmacists and other health care providers. She commented on the urgent need for a template to write down important information such as diagnosis and the name of prescribed medications and how to take them. She will be pleased to know that the ABC Heath Matters Health Passport, designed for exactly that purpose, is one of the new resources to be released leading up to October’s Health Literacy Month.
Since the creation of ABC Health Matters, it has become clear that the program is not only bridging the communication gap between patients and health care providers, but that there is an urgent need to expand and promote the program to the public as a community service.
To find out more about ABC Health Matters and to access the free workbooks and new resources, visit ABCHealthMatters.ca.
