The United States Department of Health and Human Services released The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy in 2010. It’s goal? To encourage the healthcare industry to make health information and services easier to understand and use.

“Health literacy is needed to make health reform a reality,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Without health information that makes sense to them, people can’t access cost effective, safe, and high quality health services. But, HHS can’t do it alone,” she added. “We need payers and providers of health care services to communicate clearly and make the necessary changes to improve their communication with consumers, patients, and beneficiaries.”

At Health Nuts Media, we could not agree more! That’s exactly why we began creating our child- and family-friendly animation. We help make health information easier to understand – for virtually anyone, at almost any age, at even a minimal literacy level. Check out the latest bit of health literacy fun in our “ABCs of Health Literacy” series, “Diabetes Decoder Challenge” where you can get a free look at the full episode #7, “Eating & Exercise” from our “Understanding Diabetes” series. But, to get your free peek, you have to unlock the special key by decoding a secret message found in the challenge. (It’d probably be good to have a child with you to help!)

Our content is oriented toward kids, but parents and even grandparents have told us how much they enjoy watching, too. They have even learned a thing or two about health issues that they hadn’t known, increasing their own health literacy. Perhaps most importantly, it helps them to help their kids and grandkids understand what is going on when they or one of their friends or relatives has a complicated health problem. (And, yes, we do have research studies underway to prove the effectiveness of our content; preliminary results are tremendously positive.)

Making health information for kids and adults that is fun to watch and easy to understand: that’s what HHS wants and that is just what we do. Health literacy help for kids…of all ages!
 

Tim Jones, CEO
Posted – March 16, 2012