Equipping and empowering patients: An examination of project work in critical health literacy

Abstract

Health services are characterised by a high degree of complexity. At the same time, patients require participation in medical decision-making. Patient empowerment is both of ethical and economic relevance. In this context, critical health literacy (CHL) is a process of imparting health-related competencies to individual citizens. In this paper, we introduce two initiatives by Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) which support CHL. The first project is a patient guidebook. The second is a tutorial series consisting of three single courses. In the 21st century, we feel we should help the more mature citizens to stay empowered even when they use the health system as patients.