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WHEREAS, Health Literacy Month was founded by Helen Osborne M.Ed., OTR/L in 1999 to promote the importance of understandable health information; and,
WHEREAS, this annual national event continues because of the hard work and commitment of health advocates worldwide, one of which is the Regional Health Literacy Coalition; and,
WHEREAS, in 2010, the University of Pittsburgh's Institute of Politics (IOP) hosted a town hall meeting to discuss common problems patients have in health care; as a result of that forum, regional health and human service leaders connected with a mission to improve health literacy in our region and in October of 2011, the Regional Health Literacy Coalition (RHLC) was born; and,
WHEREAS, a person who lacks basic skills is 4 times more likely to have poor health and ends up paying on average $10,000 a year more for health care than someone with higher literacy; and,
WHEREAS, health literacy requires much more than the ability to read and write; it means understanding medication directions, surgical procedures, even nutrition labels on packaged foods and could get harder when a person lacks family support, is worrying about healthcare payments or their values may differ from the doctor; and,
WHEREAS, RHLC works with over 75 partners in Southwestern PA to demonstrate how important it is to have a straightforward, more patient-centered health system and they are working to make our regional health care system more easy to use for all by the year 2020; and,
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby commend RHLC for their commitment to creating a more health literate region; and,
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby declare The Month of October to be "Health Literacy Month" in the City of Pittsburgh.