For more than 20 years, October has been recognized as Health Literacy Month. You can find more information about this celebration, including ideas to build awareness and take action, at www.healthliteracymonth.org.
According to that website, health literacy is “when individuals have the ability to find, understand and use information and services for health-related decisions for themselves and others.”
There are several consumer health resources under Health & Medicine in GoWYLD.net.
For example, Medline Plus is a resource from the National Library of Medicine. It provides health and wellness information on health topics, medications and dietary supplements, human genetics (consumer-friendly information about the effects of genetic variation on human health), and medical tests ( including what the tests are used for, why a doctor may order a test, how a test will feel, and what the results may mean). There are videos on anatomy and body systems and animated videos that explain topics in health and medicine. It also includes Health Check Tools and interactive health games.
Included is “easy to read” information, in 60 languages, making it easier to read, understand, and use.
There are sources from more than 1,600 selected organizations, and Medline Plus provides 40,000 links to authoritative health information in English and 18,000 links to information in Spanish.
Two video tutorials, Understanding Medical Words and Evaluating Health Information, give users another way to understand and use health information.
Medline Plus is available to all Wyoming library users and does not require a library card to access. Other Health & Medicine resources may require your Wyoming library card number and PIN to use remotely.
For more information about these resources, visit your local library or contact Chris Van Burgh, Database Instruction Librarian at the Wyoming State Library, chris.vanburgh@wyo.gov.