Shaping the future of self-care through pharmacy

“Shaping the future of self-care through pharmacy” programme

Health and self-care literacy for the management of minor ailments in the pharmacy 

Empowering patient self-care improves health outcomes and reduces the burden of diseases. Improving health and self-care literacy is key to empowering pharmacy-based self-care. This is especially important when it comes to the management of minor ailments through pharmacy. Consisting of a series of five events focusing on common health issues, this new FIP digital programme aims to examine how pharmacists can be enabled to improve health and self-care literacy. Approaches for each of the five areas of minor ailments will be discussed including embedding health and self-care literacy into education and training, developing self-diagnosis and self-medication protocols, widening access to patient information, and improving referral strategies. 

Readying the global population for self-care: Health literacy in the 2020s

24 July 2021

This event will explore the evolution in our understanding of health literacy and identify practical strategies to improve health literacy in community populations.  The role of the pharmacist in health literacy is also discussed.

Health literacy describes the skills that enable individuals to obtain, understand and use information to make decisions and take actions that have an impact on health.   Several countries now have well established national strategies and plans to improve health literacy through programs to improve the skills of patients and the public, and service changes to reduce the literacy demands on patients and the public.

Aim: To discuss health literacy, how it readies the global population for self-care and how pharmacists can contribute

Learning objectives:

  • Define health literacy.
  • Describe different rates of health literacy around the world.
  • Discuss challenges and opportunities for improving health literacy;
  • Critique the role of the pharmacist in health literacy.

Programme

  1. Welcome (5 minutes) – Dr Sarah Dineen-Griffin, Charles Sturt University (Moderator)
  2. Importance of health literacy and how health systems can support it: a pharmacy perspective (20 minutes) – Helen Ryan, National Adult Literacy Agency (Ireland).
  3. Improving health literacy (20 minutes) – Dr Anandi Law, Western University of Health Sciences (USA)
  4. The role of pharmacists in supporting health literacy (20 minutes) – Greg Duncan, Monash University (Australia).
  5. Panel Discussion (20 minutes) – Panel + Moderator
  6. Summary and close (5 minutes) - Dr Sarah Dineen-Griffin, Charles Sturt University (Moderator)

Target Audience: Healthcare professionals – particularly the pharmacy team, who support people to self-care.