The Grossmont Healthcare District’s Dr. William C. Herrick Community Health Care Library, 9001 Wakarusa St. in La Mesa, will host a free program on “Finding the Right Words for Better Health” from 10 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The program is part of the library’s Wellness Wednesday series, normally held on the fourth Wednesday of the month.
The speaker on Oct. 28 will be Kathy Quinn, director, Herrick Community Health Care Library. In recognition of October as Health Literacy Month, Quinn will discuss the importance of health literacy and how it relates to improving health care. Health literacy refers to how well you can get the health information and services that you need, how well you understand them, and about using them to make good health decisions.
The theme for Health Literacy Month 2015 is “Be a Health Literacy Hero.” Health Literacy Heroes are individuals, teams, or organizations who identify health literacy problems and act to solve them, according to Health Literacy Consulting, a Natick, Mass.-based organization that founded Health Literacy Month in 1999.
“Everyone, no matter how educated, is at risk for misunderstanding health information,” said Quinn, who has served as director of Herrick Library since 2007. Quinn has a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Dominican University in the Chicago area.
The Herrick Library, which opened in 2002, is a consumer health public library specializing in health research information, accessible both on-site and via the Internet. The library is operated by the Grossmont Healthcare District, a public agency that supports health-related community programs and services in San Diego’s East County. For more information, phone the library at (619) 825‑5010 or visit www.herricklibrary.org.