Skills4 Health Literacy– Nordic project promoting capacity building on health literacy and dementia

BACKGROUND: An increasing proportion of the population is living with dementia and need health- and social care. People with limited health literacy have difficulties with accessing, understanding, appraising, and applying health information to promote and maintain health. Knowledge about how to promote health literacy is limited among health- and social care providers although such knowledge is important to be able to work person-centered and to reduce the risk of unequitable health and health care. As a response to this, the Erasmus+ project Skills 4 Health Literacy is conducted in the period 2022-2025. The project's overall aim is to meet the needs of higher education institutions in training future and current health and social care professionals, through digital education technologies, to promote health literacy capacity-building when supporting persons at risk of dementia to deliver relevant and personalized interventions. METHODS: A review of research, policies, and curriculums, and four focus group discussions and 14 individual interviews with experts from with a wide range of social and health care sites in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. RESULTS: We developed a competence profile for health- and social care workers highlighting which knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to promote and take health literacy into account when working with people at risk of dementia and relatives to those. Thereafter, we developed, and pilot tested health literacy courses (1 classroom-based, 1 traditional online and 1 MOOC) based on this competence profile, in three of the Nordic countries. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for health literacy training among health- and social care workers in the Nordic countries. This project suggests a consensus-build competency profile to further develop the capacity building within health and social care and dementia with regards to health literacy training. KEY MESSAGES: • Health- and social care workers in the Nordics who meet elderly need training in health literacy. • A competence profile and health literacy courses have been developed to meet those needs.