English for Health is a 12 week course that works from the text, Staying Healthy.  The program is held in hospital and clinic settings. Adult English language learners study how to navigate the health care system, communicate with health care staff and professionals (with a focus on patient rights and responsibilities), read medicine labels and adopt good health habits.  The class provides students hands-on practice that will improve their English language ability, knowledge of good health practices and their ability to make and communicate good decisions regarding their health care. Throughout the course area health care providers come to speak with the class on a variety of health related topics, ranging from accessing low cost healthcare to flu prevention.  In addition, the class takes fieldtrips that are of interest to the current group of students, such as a health foods supermarket or a community clinic.  The culminating activity is a mock clinic, where students practice interactions with nurses, practitioners and pharmacists. The clinic experience is simulated as students make a doctor’s appointment, fill in new patient forms, meet with a provider to learn about their blood pressure and describe symptoms and then finally speak with a pharmacist about a medical prescription. 

The course provides childcare, the Staying Healthy text and other course materials to all students, free of charge.

The English for Health program was named a “promising practice” by the State of Wisconsin to improve minority health outcomes in 2010.  The program also received the first Outstanding Achievement in Health Literacy from Wisconsin Literacy in 2010.

For more information: 

Literacy Network
Beth Gaytan, Health Literacy Director
(608) 244-3911
beth@litnetwork.org

FLC Releases New Women’s Health and Coping with Stress Curricula, July 2010

Through the generous support of the Florida Department of Education, the Florida Literacy Coalition is pleased to make available two new health literacy student resource books, each with a corresponding teacher’s guide.  These publications compliment FLC’s Staying Healthy curriculum by focusing on two issue areas identified by teachers and students as topics of interest.

The Women’s Health resource covers topics including menstruation, menopause, pregnancy, childbirth, breast and reproductive cancer, sexually transmitted infections and domestic abuse. The Coping with Stress supplement covers stress, the effects of stress on the body and healthy ways to manage one’s stress.

While Staying Healthy is freely available to download, many programs like to provide students with their own high quality print copies. Get your glossy, bound, full color books today!

"Thank you for such beautiful, user-friendly, and accesible materials dealing with vital health issues!"
- Anne Meisenrahl, Tallahassee

"I am finding Staying Healthy to be an excellent resource. It is comprehensive and informative. It is colorful, engaging, and written in a way that high beginning to intermediate language learners can readily understand."
- David Heit

"A comprehensive guide to help ESOL students become confident and self-sufficient while gaining control of their health."

"Staying Healthy has really impacted my students. They tell me it is easier to go to the doctor and understand what he/she says. One student even brought her new medicine to class to show us!"
- Stephanie David, West Palm Beach