Diabetes literacy: Health and adult literacy practitioners in partnership

Author/s: Stephen Black

Edition: Volume 52, Number 1, April 2012

Summary: This paper describes pedagogy in a series of ‘diabetes literacy’ programs involving culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. The programs were jointly delivered in local community sites, including neighbourhood centres and public housing halls, by qualified nutritionists from a public health service and adult literacy teachers from a technical and further education (TAFE) institute. The programs were funded by the Australian Government as an adult literacy innovative project, and they were considered innovative because the concept of ‘diabetes literacy’ is relatively new, and in the Australian health literacy context, the work of health professionals in a team with adult literacy teachers and other organisational partners is undeveloped and rarely documented. The main focus of the paper is on how these two partners managed to work together effectively within an integrated literacy approach focusing on the situated health needs of selected CALD communities.

Keywords: CALD, health literacy, diabetes, integrated literacy, situated health needs

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 52_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.