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Health literacy is an important part of the integration of self care into the healthcare system, Dr Selwyn Hodge, co-chair, Self Care Forum, told delegates at this year's Self Care Conference.

€A&E has become the first point of contact for many and people visit the GP for the most minor of ailments and health literacy has declined alarmingly over the last 70 years of the NHS,€ he explained. €Community and family support no longer exists so there is a lack of understanding about how to take medicines and where to get advice.€

Referring to the wealth of healthcare information available online, Dr Hodge explained that often people can't understand what they're reading or what websites to use. €They have insufficient knowledge to evaluate the context of the advice so can end up doing the wrong thing,€ he said.

€The public doesn't understand NHS structures and how it works. Why do they go to their GPs? It's because it's what they know,€ said Dr Hodge. €Very few go to pharmacies other than to get their prescription but pharmacists can be a wealth of knowledge about OTC treatments and minor ailments. We need to get people to understand that.€

His solution, he explained, is health literacy as an Ofsted-regulated part of the national curriculum, educating the younger population about how to take their medicines, where to go for healthcare advice and support and how to evaluate and interpret health information so they have the means by which to effectively self care in the future. He also advocated the potential for community pharmacists, GPs and nurses to support teachers in delivering important health messages to children.

€We're letting children down. They can't become health literate adults without the resources to do so,€ Dr Hodge said. €It's a big ask to get health education into the curriculum, it hasn't been for 80 years, but if we don't fight it, it will never happen.€

The Self Care Conference launched Self Care Week, the national awareness campaign which aims to help people understand what they can do at home to look after their own and their family's health without the need for GP or A&E visits, as well as making better use of their community pharmacy. Get involved via www.selfcareforum.org/events/self-care-week-resources.