Kia mau te kahu whakamauru: Health literacy in palliative care

Abstract

The New Zealand Palliative Care Strategy (Minister of Health 2001) recognised the need for local and national policies that support the specific needs of Maori, including linkages with Maori organisations and care coordinators. While there are increasing numbers of research studies about access to palliative care for Maori and others (Frey et al 2013; Robinson et al 2013), this is the first to have taken a health literacy perspective. Health literacy is described as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (Nielsen-Bohlman et al 2004; Ministry of Health 2010a). For health professionals, health literacy is about their ability to communicate health information and build skills and knowledge. For health organisations, health literacy is about the appropriateness of the health information and services they provide for patients and their families as well as the organisational systems and processes to support health professionals to build health literacy. The Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) and the Ministry of Health as the Maori Health Joint Venture, contracted UniServices to identify, from a health literacy perspective, issues for Maori and their whanau in accessing palliative care services. Four key areas in the Request for Proposal of interest were identified, including: 1. Ways in which Maori access palliative care services 2. The current level of Maori health literacy with regards to palliative care 3. The way in which different factors within whanau influence the ability of Maori to obtain, process and understand palliative care information and services 4. Identification of communication models which are effective in enhancing this ability.