LA CaTS Cores & Resources
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Terry Davis, Ph.D
Health Literacy Core Director
LSUHSC Shreveport
(318) 675-8694 -
Connie Arnold, Ph.D
Health Literacy Core Co-Director
LSUHSC Shreveport
(318) 675-4324
Health Literacy Core
Our LA CaTS Center recognizes that a large and often overlooked group of underserved individuals are those with low literacy skills. This is clearly a major concern for our institutions in Louisiana (LA) and for our collaborating partner, South Carolina (SC), in caring for underserved (vulnerable) populations in each state. Low literacy is pervasive in both states and has a significant public health impact on LA and SC citizens. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy - LA ranks 49th among states with with 28% of adults scoring in the lowest literacy level while SC ranks 48th with 25% of adults scoring in the lowest literacy level. The Health Literacy (HL) Core is a valuable resource to assist researchers in providing plain language communication to research subjects. Thus, the Health Literacy (HL) Core’s overarching goal is to provide training, specific methodology, attention to human subject’s issues, and ongoing consultation to enhance skills of clinical and translational researchers to communicate clearly with research populations with low literacy skills.
The goal is to give research subjects information that is easy to understand and act on. We will offer practical training, and easy to use methodology, and friendly ongoing consultation to enhance the oral and written communication skills of COBRE/INBRE researchers.
The Health Literacy Core Team of Drs. Terry Davis and Connie Arnold will provide services and iterative consultation early in the development of protocols and consent forms particularly those designed for vulnerable populations. In addition, to address the specific needs of our COBRE/INBRE mentees, the HL core will have ongoing dialogues with the PIs, mentors and other faculty responsible for training of COBRE/INBRE mentees.
The vision of Health Literacy Core is to:
- To provide skill-building in using novel methods, techniques and technology to develop literacy appropriate public health messages and patient-centered materials, consent forms, questionnaires and heath education which are understandable and useable for patients, particularly those cared for in the public hospitals and safety-net clinics.
- To provide easy to use methodology to improve communication and relationship-building skills needed to conduct research with underserved populations.
- To provide supportive ongoing consultation to researchers and scholars in applying health literacy methodology in their existing and planned translational research, as well as with the implementation and dissemination of research findings, to promote a better understanding by all patients.
