At all levels, greater efforts are needed to promote a culture of health literacy in order to foster equitable access to healthcare for all, including people in vulnerable situations. In practice, this means the development of public policy at the local, regional, national and international levels. This also requires cross-sectoral collaboration with other stakeholders (interest groups, coalitions, alliances, networks etc.) and capacity building in health authorities and systems to strengthen the capacity and skills of the workforce.  

Zurück Improving health literacy – Portugal

 Aim and objectives:

In Portugal, the national action plan on health literacy aims to reach different parts of the population, including, for example, immigrant populations and temporary residents. The national action plan was launched after a survey revealed that up to 40% of the population had difficulties in accessing adequate and reliable information on health care. For young people, health information is often obtained via social media platforms which can be both a challenge and an opportunity to tailor and better direct health literacy towards their lifestyles. 


 Target group:

The success and development of the Action Plan will depend on the close coordination and work with the following strategic partners: Public, Social and Private Sectors; Ministries, General-Directorates and Inter-ministerial Committees; National Health Plan Health Programmes; other structures belonging to the Ministry of Health Academy, Professional Bodies, Scientific Societies, Private Institutions for Social Solidarity (IPSS), NGOs, Media, Social Media, Digital Media, Civil Society Patient Associations.


 Method:

The action plan focuses on four priorities:

  • adopting healthy lifestyles;
  • training for proper use;
  • promoting well-being;
  • promoting knowledge and research.

 Outcome:

The Action Plan facilitates the provision of instruments and tools to health professionals to promote health literacy; campaigns and thematic interventions are carried out for the population that promote health literacy; the network of stakeholders to incorporate and strengthen health Literacy promotion interventions and their impact are increased; and a monitoring committee with the purpose of supporting the prioritisation of actions and measures, and as a resource of excellence for the development of strategic information.


 Added value:

Whilst keeping a person-centred approach to interventions, the Action Plan intends to improve the health literacy levels of the Portuguese population continuously and consciously in a sustainable way. Deploying a life cycle approach is in line with other policy initiatives related to “Health Citizenship”, “Equity and Access to Healthcare”, “Quality in Health”, “Healthy Policies” and their respective objectives and goals.

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