Welcome to Health Literacy Wisconsin
Health Literacy Wisconsin is a division of Wisconsin Literacy, a nonprofit coalition representing a membership of 60 community-based literacy agencies. Wisconsin Literacy is recognized nationally for raising awareness of the importance of health literacy skills and fostering two-way communication between adult literacy agencies and healthcare providers.
You are invited to use this website to explore the issue of health literacy, find resources for your health literacy activities, discover what our regional health literacy committees are doing, and learn about health literacy conferences and training.
What is health literacy?
The Institute of Medicine defines health literacy as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic information and services needed to make appropriate decisions regarding their health.” As such, an individual’s health literacy skills directly correlate to their overall health and well being.
Literacy skills are the strongest predictor of health status, more than age, income, employment status, education level or racial/ethnic group. (Partnership for Clear Health Communication)
Get involved!
We hope you will contact us if you have questions or would like to become involved with health literacy initiatives in Wisconsin.
The Southwest Wisconsin Area Health Education Center provided the funding to launch this site and to post information about the Healthcare Practitioner Workshop developed by Wisconsin Literacy.
