A health literacy workshop targeting nurses, healthcare students, case managers and various non-profit agencies is scheduled for Gordon Hospital, Tuesday July 27.

The workshop is sponsored and hosted by The Calhoun-Gordon Council For a Literate Community and Gordon Melissa Hodge-Penn, health literacy/workshop education coordinator, Technical College System of Georgia/Office of Adult Education, will conduct the workshop.

The session begins at 10 a.m. and will last until approximately noon in Conference Room E on the second floor at the hospital.

Much of the workshop will involve working with and communicating with low literate Hodge-Penn is the primary person in this phase of adult education at Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG). She played an integral part in developing the adult education department’s Online Health Literacy Toolkit which provides information and resources to help adult education instructors and administrators better understand the problem of health literacy and its affect on learners; develop and implement creative approaches to help learners increase health literacy skills through adult education instruction; and develop partnerships between literacy and healthcare organizations.

“Through these programs, which are statewide, trained instructors are able to integrate health issues into lessons that address core reading, writing and math skills,” says Ms. Hodge-Penn.

Attendees will receive instruction to empower themselves to:

* Navigate the healthcare system to get needed services, including locating providers and services, filling out forms, and advocating for themselves

* Share personal information and engage in dialogue with clinicians

* Understand written and oral information given by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care professionals

* Follow directions in taking medications, preparing for a procedure or test, and scheduling

“It is a workshop that should be beneficial and helpful to anyone who administers, oversees or is otherwise involved in healthcare and serving patients who fit into these special categories,” said Wayne Minshew, executive director of the literacy council. “It would be a worthwhile way to spend a couple of hours and learning from an expert who has devoted most of her career to this area of adult education.”

Anyone interested in attending the workshop is advised to call 678-848-6410 or e-mail wminshew@gntc.edu. Other contacts are Karen Shaw at the marketing department at Gordon Hospital and Roberta Charbonneau at Roberta@gordonconnection.org.

The workshop is free.